Recent discoveries like Adult Player have brought ransomware back into the news, but it's not just individuals that are being targeted.
Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack says it's seeing a rise in ransomware attacks aimed at corporate virtual drives. Recently Bitcoin payment was demanded in exchange for stolen data with the threat of the user's information being auctioned off.
The new attacks on corporate systems involve hackers deleting virtual drives completely and replicating the files on their own servers. The first thing companies know about the attack is when they find a note from the hacker where the virtual drives used to be. This criticizes their security arrangements and requests payment for return of the data or threatens to sell it on the open market. In a recent case dealt with by Kroll Ontrack, payment was demanded in the virtual currency Bitcoins in exchange for stolen data within two weeks or the user's information would be auctioned off. Kroll Ontrack was successfully able to recover the customer's data saving them from having to surrender to the demands of the criminals.
"The methods used in ransomware attacks are constantly evolving, but our engineering team have developed their own methods to retrieve and restore data which mean that companies avoid having to make payments to criminal gangs just to get their information back," says Shane Denyer, Data Recovery Engineer at Kroll Ontrack. "We are seeing a definite move away from attacks that target large numbers of small business or home users towards more of a spearfishing approach where individual, larger corporations come under fire".
To keep their data safe enterprises are advised to keep anti-virus software up-to-date, create regular back-ups of corporate data on devices outside the network, and store additional back-ups of virtual drives on devices at a different location.
"Earlier versions of ransomware have been broken down and antidotes are readily available," adds Denyer. "However, we are seeing more and more attacks on corporate systems and predict that there will be even more incidents as ransomware technologies continue to develop. The key is to ensure that data is always backed up on a regular basis and that reputable partners are involved in restoring data that is hacked".
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