The Anatomy Of A Sophisticated, Large-Scale Ransomware Attack
Summary
They’re also growing increasingly adept at sniffing out the best opportunities to extract maximum profit, and ransomware is an essential weapon in their arsenal that has seen a recent spike in usage. Emotet was originally designed as a banking Trojan to steal credit card details, but it is increasingly being pressed into service to spread other strains of malware — particularly ransomware. When they’re satisfied that the infection has a stronghold on the victim’s network, the criminal will wait for a quiet period — say, a weekend during the holiday season — and they’ll start to inject a ransomware strain that may have been tailormade for the target. Even though relatively new strains of ransomware like Ryuk are more targeted — hitting organizations like newspapers, which can’t tolerate downtime or striking during the holidays when staff are away — they typically gain access in the same way as any other piece of malware. Traditionally, victims of large-scale ransomware attacks, whether private companies scared of reputational damage or local governments worried about the next round of political elections, have not been truly transparent.