Crypto Malware: Responding To Machine-Timescale Breaches

BY: Simon Crosby
 
The game has changed again with hackers' ability to steal your data at record speeds and cripple your organization before the first alert.
 The thousand-fold increase in crypto-malware highlights a profound change in the cyber-landscape: Previously, an attacker seeking to steal intellectual property, personal identifiable information or payment card information would need to successfully breach and persist on one or more endpoints, carefully research the network, stealthily exfiltrate data, and finally process it in order to sell it on the dark web – a lot of effort for an uncertain payout. But crypto-malware is a clear signal that hackers have changed the game. 
With crypto-malware – ransomware that encrypts files until a ransom is paid – every compromised device, whether company or personally owned, can be quickly monetized. If money isn’t the goal, attackers can use it to cripple a target for political or military advantage because it’s quick, precise and lethal, and much simpler and more effective than a messy kinetic weapon.  For organizations whose missions depend on availability of computer systems, including hospitals, law enforcement and military targets, this new form of attack is a nightmare.
 
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