James Allman-Talbot of Quorum Cyber dives into the advancements of ransomware, explores the past, present, and future of cyber threats, and discusses how to fortify defenses against evolving tactics.
Ransomware isn’t a new phenomenon. Its origins date back to the 1980s to a strain known as the ‘AIDs trojan.’ AIDs Trojan encrypted the file system of devices and demanded payment of $180 to be mailed to a post box in Panama for the decryption key to unlock encrypted data. Holding data hostage by encrypting files and selling decryption keys for ransom continued until the late 2010s when victims discovered new methods to mitigate the threat. The stages of a typical ransomware attack include:
Stage 1: The ransomware attackers gain initial entry into an organization through various methods such as phishing emails, exploiting software vulnerabilities, or using compromised credentials. After gaining access, they conduct reconnaissance within the network to escalate privileges and move laterally across devices.
Stage 2: This stage involves the threat actor unauthorizedly transferring an organization’s data to its servers before the ransomware is activated. This…
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