What is Human Operated Ransomware?

With the number of cyber attacks on the rise, particularly ransomware attacks, it is important more now than ever that organisation’s have ample protection in place to prevent attacks happening.

 

What is Human Operated Ransomware?

There’s a cyber threat that should be at the forefront of most organisations’ cyber security efforts: human operated ransomware. It consists of hands-on-keyboard attacks by financially motivated malicious actors, accessing internal corporate networks and deploying ransomware. They then use these to encrypt the organisation’s data, extorting them to pay a ransom to get their data and systems restored.

 

Why human operated ransomware attacks are so dangerous?

Long-running downtime is often a result of these attacks, while ransoms are negotiated and the data is held hostage. Unfortunately, when it comes to these attacks, having backup and recovery strategies in place is not sufficient. This is because they don’t prevent the theft of the data in the first place, which can then be leaked to the public or used for extortion. Organisations need to place a strong priority on preventing the attacks from happening in the first place.

 

How an attack works?

Typically, a campaign begins with an unsophisticated and mass-scale technique such as a large deployment of phishing emails. These can be effective because they’re often designated as unimportant, so remedies aren’t put into place and investigations aren’t carried out.

What makes an organisation vulnerable to these attacks?

• older operation systems
• poorly configured technology
• low security on privileged accounts
• ineffectual detection

What practical steps can an organisation take to improve their security?

• Improve employee awareness
• Ensure adequate email security
• Use web filters
• Focus on strong passwords

See what else your organisation can do to help prevent a ransomware attack here

For more information about how we can protect you and your business contact us today

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