image credit: Christiaan Colen / flickr
When we talk about ransomware, we need to draw a line between what it used to be and what it currently is. Why? Because nowadays ransomware is not just about encrypting data – it’s primarily about data exfiltration. After that, it’s about data encryption and leaving convincing proof that the attacker was in the network, and finally, it’s extortion. And again, it’s not about the data loss itself but about publishing stolen data on the internet. Let’s call it “Ransomware 2.0”.
Why is it so important to state this? Because many organizations still believe that it’s all about malware, and if your anti-malware protection is good enough, you’ll be OK. As long as people think this way, the ransomware threat actors will continue to succeed again and again.
