Verizon’s annual data breach 2018 report shows hacking attacks that take your files away have gotten worse. In fact, they’ve doubled and got more sophisticated.
Here’s four quick-hitter takeaways from the C-Net article shown below:
- Ransomware is a lucrative and GROWING business.
- Hackers are targeting consumers less, and focused more on businesses.
- Healthcare is the hardest hit.
- Attacks are getting more sophisticated.
Unfortunately, your data is NOT safe. Talk to ATC about “Protection and Recovery” and service providers such as Sky Data Vault.
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If it’s any consolation to the city of Atlanta, it’s not alone.
In March, hackers took over the city government’s computer systems, scrambled up important files and refused to give back access until the city paid a $51,000 ransom to be paid in bitcoin. That’s an experience that lots of organizations have faced in the past year. Just in the last month, Baltimore recently found itself locked out of computers involved in its 911 emergency response system. And Boeing was also hit with a ransomware attack.
Those aren’t isolated incidents. According to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report, released Tuesday, ransomware attacks doubled in the last year. That’s especially alarming considering that they doubled the year before, too.
In other words, ransomware isn’t just a hot hacking trend. It’s a lucrative, growing form of cyberattack that can throw governments, schools, hospitals and businesses into chaos. Worse, we’re not getting any better at stopping it, said Dave Hylender, senior risk analyst at Verizon Business and a co-author of Verizon’s report.
“While we are certainly more aware of it, there are still a lot of people who are falling for it,” Hylender said.
Ransomware accounted for 39 percent of all new malware infections tallied up in the Verizon report, which looks at more than 53,000 security incidents drawn from Verizon cybersecurity customers as well as reports from the US Secret Service and an international consortium of private sector companies.
The numbers match up with findings released Monday by cybersecurity company Malwarebytes, which found that while hackers are targeting consumers with ransomware less frequently, they’re hitting businesses with more of the attacks.
“It’s very lucrative. It’s very low-risk for the attacker. It can be done from a great distance,” Hylender said of ransomware. “Whatever works, hackers will try it until that well runs dry.”
The sector that’s hardest hit by ransomware is health care, Hylender said. According to the Verizon report, 85 percent of the malware attacks against hospitals and other medical facilities were ransomware.
Read the full article here.
