All these days, we have seen ransomware gangs striking companies and stealing & locking up their data from access until a ransom is paid. Now, a research carried out by KrebsOnSecurity says that the gangs are emailing customers of the victimized businesses to put an extra pressure on them.
The conformation was given when Krebs received an email from the customer of Atlanta based Petroleum company RaceTrac that suffered a ransomware attack in March this year because of a vulnerability in its software provided by Accellion Inc.
Email says you are receiving this digital letter as you are a partner, customer, buyer or employee of a victimized company whose database has been compromised. And if the victim fails to pay the ransom, then the compromised information that also includes yours will be posted on the dark web for sale.
Suppose the victim denies paying the ransom and if one or several of its customers receive an email of this sort, then an automatic pressure builds on the victim to bow down to the demands of those spreading the ransomware.
Security researchers from Krebs say that ransomware gangs are evolving on a rapid note as they are seen stealing data and then demanding a ransom in millions by blocking the data from access. And if the victimized firm fails to pay or denies paying, then they sell the siphoned data on the web.
Recently, from February this year, a new trend has started among those spreading ransomware and that is to mail the customers of the victimized company and inform them they data could be compromised- thus adding pressure on the targeted company to pay up the ransom and come out of the cyber attack menace at any cost.
Note- FBI is urging its customers not to pay for the crime as it not only encourages it, but also doesn’t guaranty a decryption key for sure.
