Backing up is no panacea when blackmailers publish stolen data

Backing up data has been one of the most effective, though labor-intensive, safeguards against encrypting mcafee.com/activate product key ransomware so far www.mcafee/activate. Now, malefactors seem to have caught up with those  www.mcafee.com/activate product key who rely on backups. The creators of several ransomware programs, confronted with victims refusing to pay the ransom, shared www.mcafee.com/activate their data online.

Data publication makes threats into reality

Threats to make confidential information public are nothing new www.mcafee.com/activate. For example, in 2016, the group behind  www.mcafee.com/activate download the cryptoware that Infected sanfrancisco municipal railways‘s systems tried that trick. They never followed through on their threat, though.

Maze was the first

Unlike its predecessors, the group behind Maze ransomware delivered on its promises in late 2019 — more than once. www.mcafee.com/activate product key In November, when Allied Universal refused to pay up, the criminals  leaked 700MB internal data onlineincluding contracts, termination agreements, digital certificates, and more. The blackmailers said they had www.mcafee/activate published just 10% of what they had stolen and threatened to make the rest available publicly if the target did not cooperate.

In December, Maze actors created website and used it to post the names of victimized companies, infection dates www.mcafee.com/activate download, amount of data stolen, and IP addresses and names of infected servers. They uploaded some documents as well www.mcafee.com/activate. At the end of that month, 2GB of files, apperently stolen from data Florida, appeared online. The blackmailers said they published the information mcafee.com/activate product key to prove they weren’t bluffing.

In January, the creators of Maze uploaded data 9.5GB of Medical Diagnostic Laboratories data and 14.1GB of documents from cable maker Southwire, which had earlier sued the blackmailers for leaking confidential information. The lawsuit made the Maze website shut down, but that will not last.

Next came Sodinokibi, Nemty, BitPyLock

Other cybercriminals followed. The group behind the ransomware Sodinokibi, which was used to attack international financial company Travelex on New Year’s Eve. The cybercriminals say they have more than 5GB of information www.mcafee.com/activate product key including birth dates, social security numbers, and bank card details.

For Travelex’s part, the company says it’s seen no evidence of a leak, and that it refuses to pay. Meanwhile, the offenders say the company has www.mcafee.com/activate agreed www.mcafee/activate to enter negotiations.

On January 11th, the same groupuploaded links to about 337MB of data to a hacker message board, saying the data belonged to recruiting company Artech Information Systems, which refused to pay the ransom www.mcafee.com/activate download. The offenders said the uploaded data represented only a fraction of what they had stolen. They said they intended to sell, not publish, the rest unless the victims complied.

The authors of Nemty malware were next to announce plans to publish nonpayers’ confidential data. They said they mcafee.com/activate product key intended www.mcafee.com/activate product key to create a blog for posting piece by piece the internal documents of victims who won’t fulfill their demands.

The operators of BitPyLock ransomwareloined the trrained by adding to their ransom note a promise that they would make their victim’s confidential data available  www.mcafee/activate publicly www.mcafee.com/activate download. Although they have www.mcafee.com/activate yet to do so, BitPyLock may well prove to be stealing data as well.

No mere ransomware

Advanced features added to ransomware programs are nothing new. For example, back in 2016, a version of the Shade Trojan installed remote administration tool instead of encrypting files if it found that it had hit an accounting machine. CryptXXX both encrypted files and stole Bitcoin and log in. The group behind RAA , which targeted logins as well.  Ransomware’s ability to steal data should surprise no one — especially now that companies are increasingly recognizing the need to back up www.mcafee/activate their information.

It is worrisome that there is no safeguarding oneself against these attacks with backups. If you are infected, there is no way www.mcafee.com/activate download for you www.mcafee.com/activate product key to avoid losses www.mcafee.com/activate, which will not necessarily be limited to ransom; blackmailers provide no guarantees. The only mcafee.com/activate product key way to protect yourself is not to let malware into your systems.

How to protect yourself from ransomware

Whether this new ransomware trend will prove effective or be abandoned remains to be seen. These attacks are only starting to gain momentum, so you need to stay protected. That means more than just avoiding reputational losses and disclosure of trade secrets — if you let a client’s personal data get stolen, you may face serious fines. So, here is some advice:

• Improve information security awareness. The more knowledgeable staffers are, the lower the probability that phishing mcafee.com/activate product key and other www.mcafee.com/activate product key social engineering techniques will work on them. We have a learning platform,Kaspersky automated security platform, www.mcafee/activate designed for employees with www.mcafee.com/activate varying workload levels, interests, and level of access to confidential information.
• Update your operating systems www.mcafee.com/activate download and software promptly — especially anything found to contain vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized access to and control of the system.
• Use a specialized protective solution aimed www.mcafee/activate at combating ransomware. For example, you can mcafee.com/activate product key download our
  Kaspersky Ransomeware tools free of charge.