According to a report released by CrowdStrike, over 96% of ransomware victims are being forced to pay an extra fee amounting to thousands of dollars in a trend being mostly observed in US, EMEA and APAC.
CrowdStrike’s 2021 Global Security Attitude Survey states that the average demand made by ransomware spreaders is now $6 million, with a caveat that the criminals will target the same victim twice in the future as well.
So, it is better to spend money on proactive security measures rather than spending thousands of dollars thereafter for data recovery and losses.
Going with the second news, a new ransomware variant named Cuba is on prowl and those spreading the malware are estimated to have targeted over 49 firms so far, hailing from 5 critical business sectors like water, energy and transport.
FBI issued a warning about Cuba Ransomware yesterday and claimed that the said group of ransomware spreaders might have so far made $43.9 million in ransom pay on an average.
Interestingly, Cuba Ransomware is being distributed by Hancitor malware, a ransomware dropper that is also induced with espionage related capabilities.
Third, is the news related to a vaccine that has the potential to block STOP Ransomware. A security firm from Germany dubbed G-Data claims it has developed a software that acts as a vaccine blocking STOP Ransomware from infecting databases.
G-Data claims that its vaccine is powerful enough to block the spread of Stop ransomware that asks its victims a ransom ranging between $500 to $1000. BTW, STOP is being spread through softwares such as Windows pirated version OS activator KMSPico, music production software dubbed Cubase, Photoshop, and Norton antivirus software.
Coming to the fourth news related to ransomware, a Cybersecurity firm named Red Canary claims that its security researchers have found a new malware dubbed Cryptbot being spread by fake KMSPico tool that allows windows users to activate a pirated version of software.
According to the report released by Red Canary, the fake KMSPico software downloads onto the system of a victim and then steals credentials and drops Cryptbot malware that then disables the security features on the infected PC and makes the device defenseless against all future virus and malware attacks.
