U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says

Re:U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrori... by paxys on Thursday June 03, 2021 @06:22PM (#27388191)

These groups aren't really "targeting" anyone. These ransomware attacks are as sophisticated as nigerian prince emails. Send out a lot of spam, wait for someone who clicks on it and is running outdated software and boom. Sooner or later you will encrypt something important enough to pay for.

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Re:U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrori... by throwaway492338 on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:32PM (#27388769)

I've seen a lot of recent articles on the subject that claim it's moving in the targeted direction, here's an example:

Over the past few years, threat actors have shifted to much more targeted attacks that net higher Bitcoin payment returns for their efforts.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/targeted-ransomware-attack/

Edit: Commonly mentioned in the same breath:

- the move from just demanding a ransom for the key, to threatening publication of sensitive info

- trawling through the data to look for anything especially sensitive, as well as clues to what number to ask for in financial records

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Re:U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrori... by nuker on Friday June 04, 2021 @12:21AM (#27390511)

> Send out a lot of spam, wait for someone who clicks on it and is running outdated software and boom.

outdated Windows software

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