Ransomware Has a New Trick

Everything changes and ransomware is no exception. It morphs and changes to meet the challenges it encounters in the wild. Encrypting files and folders just wasn’t enough. The economics of crippling a business’ infrastructure and extorting money from them wasn’t as lucrative as the thieves had hoped, so now they have designed ransomware with a twist and included a new trick.

The thieves were already getting their software into your computers through social engineering and/or taking advantage of some weakness the computer has, so why not take advantage of that access and actually steal data?

So that’s what they are doing — stealing data and then leaving a ransom note behind that says, pay up in the next few days or we will post the data we stole for all to see that we actually have what we came for. This shaming technique is working and is called Leakware, Doxware or Extortionware.

The problem, of course, is even if you pay, the thieves may say they destroyed the stolen information but there is no way to prove they did what they said. Trusting a thief, well now that’s a novel thing. When the data shows up in some darkweb forum, don’t let it be said you weren’t warned. Secure your systems and teach your employees to sniff out social engineering tactics. We can help. Contact the friendly team at Centriworks to learn more about effective cybersecurity and get started today.

— Todd Sheppard /// Centriworks Chief Information Officer

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