Tenable Research Reveals “Do-It-Yourself” Ransomware Kits Have Created Thriving Cottage Industry of Cybercrime
Summary
The self-sustaining ransomware industry earned $692m from collective attacks in 2020 The shift to the subscription economy has created a new norm in the as-a-service world. Affiliates who earn between 70%-90% of the ransom payment are charged with the task of doing the dirty work to gain access to networks through tried-and-true methods such as spearphishing, deploying brute force attacks on remote desktop protocol (RDP) systems, exploiting unpatched or zero-day vulnerabilities and purchasing stolen credentials from the dark web. Ransomware groups have recently added a variety of other extortion techniques to their repertoire, including launching DDoS attacks to contacting customers of their victims, making it even more challenging for defenders. “With RaaS and double extortion, Pandoras box has been opened, and attackers are finding holes in our current defenses and profiting from them,” said Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer. “Globally we see governments confirming that ransomware attacks are a growing concern — from The Australian Cybersecurity Centre, the UK’s Information Commissioners Office, the The US FBI Cyber Division, and the The Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) in Germany, to name a few.
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