{"id":6448,"date":"2020-04-20T23:14:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T22:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/?p=6448"},"modified":"2021-04-09T23:16:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T22:16:26","slug":"trends-in-ransomware-staying-up-to-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/fr\/blog\/trends-in-ransomware-staying-up-to-date","title":{"rendered":"Trends in Ransomware: Staying Up-to-Date in the Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past several years, ransomware has been a major threat to both businesses and individual consumers. Even when cryptojacking became the threat\u00a0du jour<\/i>\u00a0for a few months, ransomware remained alive and ready to make a resurgence.<\/p>\n

But no threat remains the same year in and year out. Defenses evolve, and with them, so do attackers\u2019 tactics. Today, let\u2019s talk about the latest ransomware trends and how you can help protect your customers.<\/p>\n

The history of ransomware<\/h3>\n

Ransomware is an appealing method of financial gain for cybercriminals. Rather than having to steal data, find a buyer for it, and then sell it, they can simply lock a computer and force a victim to pay. This speeds up payment and reduces their risk of detection\u2014individual victims may not report the crime, and, if they do, police may not have the resources to investigate every instance. Plus, the rise of cryptocurrencies has allowed cybercriminals to maintain a level of anonymity with regard to payment.<\/p>\n

Attacks have become more ambitious. In 2013, CryptoLocker spread among end users across the world, and only a few years later that we saw shifts toward larger businesses and organizations. In 2017, we experienced the widespread WannaCry attacks, which devastated businesses and organizations worldwide, even disrupting the United Kingdom\u2019s\u00a0National Health Service<\/a>\u00a0for a period of time. Over the past few years, we\u2019ve seen more attacks target city governments. While some have attacked large cities\u00a0like Atlanta<\/a>, many exploit\u00a0small city governments<\/a>\u00a0that often lack proper defensive resources.<\/p>\n

Beyond the choices of targets, cybercriminals have grown craftier in malware creation, delivery, and execution. As businesses have gotten better at defending, cybercriminals have adapted. Take, for example, the\u00a0SamSam ransomware variant<\/a>, which begins by focusing on vulnerabilities within critical servers then uses that to gain persistence and propagate out to other endpoints and parts of the network.<\/p>\n

Plus, cybercriminals have attempted to use ransomware to increase the length and value of their attack. For example, the\u00a0Maze ransomware attack<\/a>\u00a0from earlier this year added extortion as leverage to get victims to pay the ransom. Criminals had been threatening extortion for a while, but this was one of the first times they made good on the threat by publishing the information of organizations that refused to pay publicly. With increased reporting requirements under data privacy laws, criminals are betting that businesses will pay ransoms to avoid larger compliance fines (although, hopefully, businesses will follow their legal requirements instead).<\/p>\n

What to do about it<\/h3>\n

Criminals have adapted their tactics to maximize their payday and chances of success. But that doesn\u2019t mean the IT industry hasn\u2019t kept pace. Here are a few tips for dealing with modern ransomware attacks:<\/p>\n