Wizard Spider, a Russian criminal gang, is reportedly hiring cold callers to threaten ransomware victims into paying up. Highly placed sources report that the received finances will be invested into building sophisticated IT infrastructure, buying access to innovative exploits, and hiring expert talent.
Cyber Threat Intelligence company Prodaft discovered in its research that the hackers are hiring cold-calling freelancers for a period of just 4 weeks. Their duty will be to call the victim from internet-based voice-call service platforms, threaten them and ask them for ransom and guide them through depositing cryptocurrency into e-wallets.
Currently, the hacker’s group is interested in targeting defense contractors, healthcare firms, hospitals, financial service providers, and critical utility providers. And is also indulging in spamming campaigns and data breaches too.
Coming to the next ransomware news, according to a Kaspersky survey on how CTOs and CIOs perceive ransomware threats, it was discovered that about 9 in 10 organizations were ready to pay a ransom if they face another ransomware attack.
What’s concerning about the survey results is the fact most companies are ready to pay ransom n number of times as it gives immediate access to data and proves a cost-effective solution than what it costs to recover data by other means.
Kaspersky has concluded that in the past couple of years, C- level employees are preparing themselves to negotiate and pay ransom to hackers. Instead of improving their cybersecurity posture.
The reason, they are going with a mindset that hackers will somehow infiltrate their networks even if they take all basic security measures to prevent such situations.
Note- In November 2019, the FBI released a public statement that companies should stop bowing down to the demands of hackers as ransom pay doesn’t guarantee a decryption key for sure and additionally encourages criminals to indulge in more such digital criminal acts.
