{"id":5173,"date":"2018-07-03T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1451c31a-289d-4f11-9dd8-a25d17518f54"},"modified":"2018-07-03T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T11:00:00","slug":"ransomware-not-dead-just-getting-a-lot-sneakier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/ransomware-not-dead-just-getting-a-lot-sneakier\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware: Not dead, just getting a lot sneakier"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"relatedContent alignRight\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\"><span class=\"int\">More security news<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last year, high-profile incidents like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/wannacry-ransomware-was-the-biggest-challenge-of-the-year-says-cyber-security-centre\/\">the WannaCry ransomware outbreak<\/a> made the file-encrypting malware internet enemy number one.<\/p>\n<p>WannaCry was not alone of course: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/petya-ransomware-attack-what-it-is-and-why-this-is-happening-again\/\">the NotPetya attack<\/a> followed just weeks later, and this was followed by a third &#8212; albeit much smaller &#8212; ransomware outbreak dubbed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/bad-rabbit-ten-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-latest-ransomware-outbreak\/\">Bad Rabbit which hit Russia and Eastern Europe in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And all the while other, less high-profile ransomware attacks have occurred on a regular basis, causing trouble for organisations around the world, like the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/hospital-pays-hackers-17000-in-bitcoins-to-return-computer-network\/\">Locky ransomware which disrupted the networks of a hospital<\/a>. Other ransomware, like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-as-a-service-for-allows-wannabe-hackers-to-cash-in-on-cyber-extortion\/\">Cerber ransomware, was available &#8216;as-as-service&#8217; to almost anyone<\/a> who wanted to make money this way.<\/p>\n<p>But as 2017 went on the impact of ransomware dwindled. Detections of Locky, Cerber and other long-standing ransomware families <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-is-time-running-out-for-the-biggest-menace-on-the-web\/\">massively declined<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, <a href=\"https:\/\/securelist.com\/ransomware-and-malicious-crypto-miners-in-2016-2018\/86238\/\">Kaspersky Lab&#8217;s latest Kaspersky Security Network<\/a> report claims that ransomware as a whole is &#8220;rapidly vanishing&#8221; with a 30 percent decline in ransomware attacks between April 2017 and March 2018 compared with the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>And <a href=\"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/mcafee-labs\/mcafee-labs-threats-report-spotlights-innovative-attack-techniques-cryptocurrency-mining-multisector-attacks\/\" target=\"_blank\">a recent threat report by McAfee Labs<\/a> also suggests a drop in the detection of ransomware attacks &#8212; putting the decline at 32 percent. There appears to be a clear trend here &#8212; that the number of ransomware attacks and the number of ransomware families is dropping off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A year ago we probably had four large groups dealing in ransomware, distributing themselves or running an affiliate model, but we&#8217;ve seen those large groups go away. There are a couple remaining, but it&#8217;s not quite as dramatic during 2017,&#8221; Keith Jarvis, senior security researcher at Secureworks told ZDNet.<\/p>\n<section class=\"sharethrough-top\" data-component=\"medusaContentRecommendation\" data-medusa-content-recommendation-options=\"{&quot;promo&quot;:&quot;promo_ZD_recommendation_sharethrough_top_in_article_desktop&quot;,&quot;spot&quot;:&quot;dfp-in-article&quot;}\">\n<\/section>\n<p>A key factor behind the decline is the rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/cryptocurrency-mining-malware-why-it-is-such-a-menace-and-where-its-going-next\/\">cryptocurrency mining malware<\/a> and low-level cyber criminals shifting their attention to &#8216;cryptojacking&#8217; as a simpler, less risky means of illicitly making money.<\/p>\n<p>These cryptojacking attacks involve attackers infecting a PC with malware which secretly uses the processing power to mine for cryptocurrency &#8212; usually the relatively simple-to-mine Monero &#8212; which is deposited into their own wallet.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike ransomware, it&#8217;s stealthy and so long as the infection isn&#8217;t discovered, it will continue to deliver the attacker a steady stream of income. The subtle nature of the attack has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/why-cryptocurrency-mining-malware-is-the-new-ransomware\/\">boosted the popularity of cryptojacking throughout 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-an-executive-guide-to-one-of-the-biggest-menaces-on-the-web\/\">Ransomware: An executive guide to one of the biggest menaces on the web<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So is it all over for ransomware? Perhaps not.<\/p>\n<p>Ransomware still remains a threat &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/atlanta-hit-by-ransomware-attack-also-fell-victim-to-leaked-nsa-exploits\/\">as evidenced by a March attack on the City of Atlanta<\/a>, which encrypted data and led to the shut down of a large number of online services. The city didn&#8217;t pay the ransom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/atlanta-spent-at-least-two-million-on-ransomware-attack-recovery\/\">but the impact of the attack is projected to cost Atlanta at least $2.6m<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta attack came as a result of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/samsam-ransomware-now-demands-33000-from-victims\/\" target=\"_blank\">SamSam<\/a>, a family of ransomware which has been in operation since 2015. Unlike the spray-and-pray tactic used by some of its commericialised counterparts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/this-lucrative-ransomware-campaign-infiltrates-vulnerable-systems-and-secretly-surveys-networks-to\/\">potentially vulnerable targets are specially sought out<\/a> in order to ensure that the ransomware can be set to spread across the network once the hackers activate the attack.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"img aspect-set\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/zdnet3.cbsistatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2018\/02\/15\/266be662-fe1c-402d-8754-de71bed8fd54\/resize\/770xauto\/3efd86387cad036350e4c5785c301960\/samsam-ransom-note.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"samsam-ransom-note.png\" height=\"auto\" width=\"770\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caption\">A SamSam ransom note on an infected system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">Image: Secureworks<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s proven successful with victims often paying tens of thousands of dollars to retrieve their files: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/us-hospital-pays-55000-to-ransomware-operators\/\">in January a hospital paid out a $55,000 bitcoin ransom<\/a> following a SamSam infection &#8212; despite having backups available, because paying up was deemed the quickest way to get systems back online.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s because it is so successful &#8212; and that the whole operation requires a level of expertise to run &#8212; that ransomware like SamSam remains a threat to businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a strong human element to deploy it, not just in the compromise and initial attack, but to deploy the ransomware,&#8221; J\u00e9r\u00f4me Segura, security researcher at Malwarebytes told ZDNet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s definitely more effort that goes into deploying this ransomware but it makes sense because it&#8217;s not just a mass shotgun approach, it&#8217;s a much more targeting approach looking for victims that have a lot more at stake when infected and will potentially pay a lot more money to unlock their files than average users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another successful ransomware variation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-warning-this-phishing-campaign-delivers-new-malware-variants\/\">GandCrab<\/a>, which offers an affiliate model, that first appeared in January and has received updates ever since.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;GandCrab is using agile technology because they&#8217;re using techniques which are like the software industry. They&#8217;re patching their ransomware on an almost daily basis, they fix bugs as they go along &#8212; it&#8217;s a really nice approach,&#8221; Yaniv Balmas, malware research team leader at Check Point, told ZDNet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It tells us that these guys are sophisticated, they know what they&#8217;re doing, they put a lot of effort in. That&#8217;s one of the reasons you can&#8217;t say ransomware is gone: people are still working on it and putting a lot of effort into it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"img aspect-set\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-not-dead-just-getting-a-lot-sneakier\/\" class=\"lazy\" alt=\"gandcrab-ransomware-note.png\" height=\"auto\" width=\"770\" data-original=\" https:\/\/zdnet4.cbsistatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2018\/01\/31\/c19af017-960f-4faf-86af-c500f87ba464\/resize\/770xauto\/15e1e99a9a7b192d4bb96f8ce630eccf\/gandcrab-ransomware-note.png\"\/><\/span><noscript><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"img aspect-set\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/zdnet4.cbsistatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2018\/01\/31\/c19af017-960f-4faf-86af-c500f87ba464\/resize\/770xauto\/15e1e99a9a7b192d4bb96f8ce630eccf\/gandcrab-ransomware-note.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"gandcrab-ransomware-note.png\" height=\"auto\" width=\"770\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caption\">GandCrab ransom note.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">Image: Malwarebyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A third form of ransomware which is still causing plenty of problems is a new kid on the block &#8212; DataKeeper, which emerged in February and those behind it are serious enough that they monitor research blogs which mention it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re applying a lot of technical best practice, they&#8217;re an active adversary. We see the DataKeeper guys looking at security research blogs and releases of detection &#8212; and soon as something is released, a very short time later they&#8217;re changing and updating their stuff,&#8221; James Lyne, global research advisor at Sophos, told ZDNet.<\/p>\n<p>But despite the effectiveness of these campaigns, they&#8217;re not on the same scale as previous ransomware attacks. Compared with the sheer mass of Locky emails which were sent out to organisations &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/this-giant-ransomware-campaign-just-sent-millions-of-malware-spreading-emails\/\">tens of millions could be sent in the space of hours<\/a> &#8212; these ransomware attacks might look relatively small in scale, so are easier to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a side effect of the volumes like the Locky campaign. That was extremely high volume, tens of millions of emails going out and hundreds of thousands of infected machines &#8212; it&#8217;s in your face and prominent and affects a lot of different people,&#8221; said Jarvis.<\/p>\n<p>In SamSam&#8217;s case, it may only target a few victims a day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have much lower volumes of just a handful per day and when it strikes, the last thing these smaller businesses want to do is talk about it &#8212; they want to avoid the publicity associated with the attacks. They&#8217;re damaging attacks, but they&#8217;re lower volume, so they fly under the radar,&#8221; Jarvis said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/what-is-malware-everything-you-need-to-know-about-viruses-trojans-and-malicious-software\/\">What is malware? Everything you need to know about viruses, trojans and malicious software<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ransomware may no longer be flavour of the month but it still remains a significant threat. The short-term damage means business can&#8217;t be done while files are encrypted while the longer-term impact may result in loss of trust from customers and users who may not feel that the victim can be trusted to keep their data secure.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also the possibility that a victim who pays the ransom could easily become infected again as attackers realise they&#8217;ve got an easy target on their hands. For cybercriminals ransomware still offers a big payday, quickly, unlike malicious cryptocurrency mining which requires patience to realise a pay-off.<\/p>\n<p>Behind much of the potency of ransomware is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/shadow-brokers-latest-file-drop-shows-nsa-targeted-windows-pcs-banks\/\">the EternalBlue SMB vulnerability<\/a> which allowed WannaCry, NotPetya and other ransomware attacks to self-perpetuate around networks.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s over a year since the NSA vulnerability was leaked by hackers but there are plenty of organisations which, despite the clear demonstrations of the damage attacks exploiting EternalBlue can do, still haven&#8217;t patched their networks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the opportunity presents itself, we could still see large-scale deployment of ransomware. We&#8217;re still waiting to see if we&#8217;re going to experience another WannaCry or NotPetya &#8212; that could still happen,&#8221; said Segura.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re still seeing all that infrastructure exposed, the EternalBlue SMB vulnerability, there are a lot of companies that are still exposed, so this is still possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That means there&#8217;s plenty of opportunity for a cyber criminal operation, should it choose to do so, deploy ransomware in the same way as WannaCry. With a more efficient means of collecting ransom payments, they could potentially make millions &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/wannacry-ransomware-hackers-behind-global-cyberattack-finally-cash-out-bitcoin-windfall\/\">as opposed to the little over $130,000 that those behind WannaCry cashed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>All of this is why cyber criminals are still deploying ransomware &#8212; because it continues to make them money.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have a machine that&#8217;s infected, what&#8217;s the easiest and fastest way to make money from that? For a long time it was dropping ransomware on there and hoping that the percentage of victims who paid would help you make money,&#8221; said Jarvis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fundamental computer security problem that&#8217;s not going to be solved, we&#8217;re not going to suddenly solve it any time soon, so it&#8217;s just going to continue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It means organisations need to be prepared to face any cyber threat, even ones that are apparently out of fashion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been hearing a lot of noise of people talking about ransomware as a thing of the past and that it&#8217;s now all about cryptocurrency mining. The main lesson we should learn is that this is not true: ransomware is still out there and still very much a threat,&#8221; said Balmas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The situation can change any minute, any day &#8212; it depends on so many factors and it&#8217;s so fragile. We could wake up next week and ransomware could be a huge deal again, so lowering defences against it isn&#8217;t a smart thing to do. We should treat it as big a threat as we did last year&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE ON CYBER CRIME<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>READ MORE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/ransomware-not-dead-just-getting-a-lot-sneakier\/#ftag=RSSbaffb68\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WannaCry and NotPetya helped make 2017 the year of ransomware. But while there&#8217;s been a shift towards cryptojacking attacks, file-encrypting malware is adapting and is still potent.<br \/>\nREAD MORE HERE&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zdnet-security"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ransomware: Not dead, just getting a lot sneakier 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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