Organizations around the world continue to face the threat of being infiltrated by Ravil and Darkside ransomware. According to McAfee Enterprise's "Advanced Threat Research Report: October 2021", the second quarter of 2021 saw a surge in cyber attacks, becoming the top concern for cyber planning for the US administration after the colonial pipeline attack wave. In addition to its devastating effect on the supply chain, ransomware was pushed out of secure cybercriminal underground forums.
Also, the Darkside ransomware group seems to have ceased its operations during the same time period as the Black matter movement. However, McAfee Enterprise's global threat network saw an increase in DarkSide attacks from various groups in the United States on legal services, manufacturing targets, and wholesale.
Similar to Darkseid's activity, other ransomware groups are operating on a similar affiliate model, including Babuk, Cuba, Ryuk, and Ravil. They release business models that support partnerships to exploit common entry vectors and similar activities within the environment.
In the second quarter of 2021, organizations are facing challenges shifting from the cloud to accommodate a flexible workforce that increases workloads, providing cybercriminals with more potential exploits and targets.
“Since the last one and a half year, we have moved to a largely flexible model of work, thus becoming ever reliant on the cloud,” says Raj Samani, Chief Scientist & McAfee Fellow, McAfee Enterprise. He further added, “However, this has also opened floodgates of opportunities for cybercriminals and made enterprises more susceptible to cyber-attacks.
Full Article: CISOs Should Concerns Themselves with REvil and Darkside Ransomware Surge
Healthcare facilities were some of the most vulnerable cybersecurity targets in 2020.
Even before the pandemic tested the healthcare systems around the globe to their limits, a 2019 report predicted that the ransomware attacks would grow four-fold between 2017 and 2020, and the industry will most likely pay $65 billion on cybersecurity between 2017 and 2021.
Cybersecurity might not be the top priority when these devices are being designed (even if they are network connected), so their firmware level protection is usually rudimentary.
And with several different device vendors and firmware updates, there are a lot of entryways for hackers.Even if a healthcare facility has a fantastic cybersecurity team/system in place, the workers and doctors are rarely trained to adopt good cybersecurity habits.
Medical training and specialized courses (from nurses to heads of departments, because they all have access to precious medical data) are usually prioritized over security training, so the access of medical personnel often becomes a weak link.There is a severe shortage of cybersecurity professionals with healthcare-relevant training and expertise.
According to a 2020 report, it takes 70% more time to find the right cyber security professional for a healthcare facility than to find someone for other IT jobs.COVID triggered an expedited conversion to the cloud and remote work, especially in the healthcare system.
Cybercrimes have always been a massive problem for us all – and the range of damage it has brought to us has also expanded over the years, particularly regarding their impact on the youth.Younger people are more likely to spend hours on end every day on the internet and getting exposed to all kinds of virtual content.
Since many games require codes to advance, some people visit unsafe sites to access these creating codes, which can serve as a breeding ground for criminal activity such as malware coding.
In fact, according to research conducted by the UK's National Crime Agency has suggested that children around the ages of twelve are at risk of becoming too involved in cyber criminality.There are several reasons why most kids continue to indulge in these practices.
Some gain financial benefits from it, while others consider it as a challenge that they feel the need to accomplish.
This sense of achievement is something they like to show off amongst their group of friends.
On the other hand, there are some kids who dwell in cybercriminal activities without being aware that what they are doing is actually considered a crime.Naturally, these can lead to some potential consequences that can include a visit from the law enforcement officers who provide a warning, or in worst-case scenarios, they are arrested and imprisoned for their actions.
