Tag: Ransomware-as-a-service (Raas)

We commissioned an independent, vendor-agnostic survey of 3,000 IT/cybersecurity leaders in mid-sized organisations (100-5,000 employees) across 14 countries, including 200 respondents in South Africa.

Ransomware attacks have dominated the headlines over the last two years and will continue to control the cybersecurity agenda going into 2023. While ransomware gangs continue to be successful in extorting money from businesses, those that do pay demands are financing the ransomware industry and further crime.

Ransomware gangs have really upped their game in the last few years, generating billions in paid ransoms from public and private sector organisations. The gangs have increased attacks on critical infrastructure operators, hospitals, manufacturing companies and pharma companies. Ransom demand amounts have gone up as well, with victims such as CNA Financial paying out a record $40 million.

2020 witnessed a dramatic cyber threat landscape from beginning to end. Although the pandemic played a central role, as the year progressed cyber adversaries evolved attacks with increasingly disruptive outcomes. They maximised the expanded digital attack surface beyond the core network, to target remote work or learning, and the digital supply chain.

There is a significant decrease in the sheer number of ransomware attacks due to improved security, better backup strategies and faster data recovery measures. This has meant that the spray and pray approach is no longer effective for ransomware distribution. Although fewer ransoms are being paid, it doesn't mean less risk.

Ransomware - a type of malware that infiltrates and infects a user or company’s system and encrypts their data, holding the organisation to ransom until a large sum of money is paid in return for a decryption key to unlock it - is more pervasive than ever.