Ransomware industry moving steadily



Ransomware is like the current pandemic, it gives a feeling of being both distant and not dangerous, when in the midst of it you understand what it really is. You don’t know what has hit you and where to go. Ransomware has been steadily gaining ground for the last few years, but for those unaffected, it seemed to be an academic exercise. At the same time , the whole World has ended up paying ransom in the recent past. If we go by some of the ransom payments this year; $2.3 million by Travelex, Colonial Pipelines $5 million, JBS $11 million, Garmin was demanded $10 million but payment not known, Cognizant April 2021 payment not known etc. In the last two cases the data was decrypted, so you can come to your own fair judgement. This gives a clear indication of the fact that the ransomware industry is moving steadily in the direction of targeted ransomware attacks. They feel that is where the money is and they have been proven right.



The technical, social engineering and business acumen professionalism which these hackers have gained over the years have emboldened them to go in for bigger catches. They have realised that they have the skills by which they can turn the world upside down and they are doing it. Every single case proves their hypothesis. The world is just not ready to handle a crime of this nature. WannaCry was a test case of crowdsourcing ransom. Its spread was phenomenal, nobody knew what was the quantum of actual proceeds? The surprising part is, even after the ransom was paid, the copy of the data remained with them, which is then offered for further extortion; financial blackmail, sell it to business competitors; simply, make maximum money out of that data, whichever way. To add to the agony nearly 36% of the companies / victims face a second attack by the same hackers.


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