These new variants should be striking fear into business bottom-lines large and small. They are man-made, devious and destructive, and they are multiplying and mutating in the 21st century’s digitally vulnerable world.
Their names range from Avaddon and Darkside to Netwalker and REvil, and they are using increasingly sophisticated ransomware techniques to shake down unwary and unprepared businesses, public institutions and government agencies.
But sophistication is not a prerequisite for success in the 21st century ransomware business, because most employers and employees have substandard data security hygiene. That applies to all sizes of businesses.
JBS USA, a subsidiary of the world’s largest meat processing company, recently paid US$11 million in a well-publicized ransomware attack.
The name of the game for ransomware criminals is hack into a vulnerable company’s computer systems, hold vital data hostage, threaten to release sensitive information into the wider world and set a ransom price that is lower than what it would cost companies to restart their systems from scratch.
Digital gangsters are winning the game so far. A Herjavec Group report notes that the average cost of ransom and recovery associated with ransomware attacks thus far in 2021 has been double that of the average global ransom demand in 2020.
Cybint, a cybersecurity education company, forecasts that cybercrime’s global cost will hit US$6 trillion this year. Businesses can bet on those ransomware numbers rising and ransomware’s range of targets expanding. For instance, Herjavec noted that Netwalker has shifted its business game plan to a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model under which it collects a percentage of the ransom collected by Netwalker franchisees.
Considering that an estimated 95% of cybersecurity breaches result from human error, fighting all the new variants of this business cancer starts with companies and their employees because basic frontline digital security and common sense are the most effective vaccines here.
