This coming week the expert Allan Liska, also known as the “Ransomware Sommelier”, arrives in Mexico to participate in a Cyber Security Forum. Liska has more than 20 years of experience in digital security issues and has written several books, such as “Ransomware: Defense Against Digital Extortion”.
Liska affirms that in the year 2022 the ransomware attacks . The information does not show that it is going down, but rather that each year the attacks are on the rise.
He tells us about ransomware myths, saying that with a few exceptions, ransomware groups don’t target specific industries. Instead, they target certain vulnerabilities, whether it’s leaked credentials, the willingness to click on emails from phishing having vulnerable unpatched systems exposed to the Internet, or being unlucky enough to use a Managed Service Provider (MSP) that the ransomware group was able to compromise.
In the past year, we have seen an increase in ransomware attacks against car dealers Y real estate offices . Not because those companies are of particular interest to ransomware groups, but because their vulnerability profile matches well with the attack profile of these ransomware groups. Even organizations with an operating budget as small as a food Bank can be affected by a ransomware attack.
phishing is a common way for ransomware and other threat actors to gain initial access, so having a strong phishing training program in place along with strong email security controls is a good way to prevent not only ransomware, but also other attacks. That said, many researchers no longer classify phishing as the most common initial access vector .
There is a common misconception that cybercriminals are “lone wolves” operating on their own. In the case of ransomware, nothing could be further from the truth
Ransomware groups are complex organizations, which is why they can carry out so many successful attacks. By dividing the roles and responsibilities for gaining initial access, ransomware deployment, negotiation, and other tasks, ransomware groups can gain “economy of scale” that allows them to carry out dozens of attacks at once and hundreds of attacks. by year. This is important, Liska tells us, because she demonstrates that ransomware is a difficult crime to solve nationally and internationally, and nearly impossible for individual organizations to defend.
In their experience, ransomware protection is not a one-time investment, it requires ongoing investment and updating to keep up with the latest threats. We hope that Allan Liska, during his visit to Mexico, will bring us more information on the current situation of the evolution of ransomware.