The Great Crimeware Awakening

The bad guys are taking advantage of their new digital bounty. Ransomware is just the beginning to show us how bad it is soon going to be. We really had no idea how bad it was going to be... until now.

For a long time, most digital computer malware was intended to be harmless. Funny messages, music, and typed letters on your screen were printed for fun and games. Sure, there were occasional malicious malware programs such as the first ransomware programs like the AIDS Cop virus but most were written for harmless intent. 

Around 2005, a switch was made. The first crimeware occurred because Malware writers learned that  malicious code could be modified in order to make a financial gain. Over time, nation-states and militaries started to get in the game. After decades, the professional malware creation of US and Israel Stuxnet successfully ruined an adversary's nuclear program.

Now, Cyberwarfare is now a forever permanent part of the world's wars and battles globally. 

However, nothing prepared the world for what was to come - ransomware. It started to appear in 2005, with the first industrial-strength strain rearing its ugly head in September 2013: CryptoLocker, followed by a nasty jump in prevalence early 2015. At first, ransomware was smaller and mostly attacked consumers or home PC's. By 2017, ransomware groups realized that millions of dollars can be extorted from a large organization instead of receiving a small ransom. Entire companies, hospitals, and even cities started to be shut down because of ransomware. And it's getting worse, much worse. 

So, what should an organization should do to best stop the bad guys? To fight social engineering attacks, the best step is to train your end users. New school security awareness training can teach your end users to spot any attack. 

Tech Aeris has the full story: https://techaeris.com/2020/01/22/digital-bounty-the-great-crimeware-awakening/