LONDON (Reuters) – A surge in cyber attacks and ransomware hacks since the start of pandemic lockdowns is alarming for a world of finance moving headlong into digital money and remote working longer term.
The flipside of the digital revolution has always been the inevitable rise in its alter ego of online crime – aping the much-vaunted global reach and potential anonymity of the web and leaching off lax corporate and consumer security.
Some attackers are clearly suspected of being state sponsored, with political motives. But others are simply hyper sophisticated organised gangs such as DarkSide.
The remote working boom during the pandemic has seen a surge in such cyber raids and disruptions on companies, banks and government bodies. Victims this past month alone include Colonial Pipeline, Brazilian meatpacker JBS and Ireland’s national health service.
Ransomware criminals collected almost $350 million last year, up threefold from 2019, according to members of a public-private group called the Ransomware Task Force.
That seems a modest total in global terms but the disruption caused in lost business or public services and the massive spending on cybersecurity defences…
