FINAL WORD
Understanding the root cause of opportunistic and targeted ransomware attacks
Jeffrey Kok , Vice President of Solution Engineer , Asia Pacific and Japan at CyberArk , asks why ransomware is so pervasive and how these attacks continue to be so successful . He says : “ To answer these questions , it is important to understand how opportunistic and targeted ransomware attacks work .”
The critical infrastructure systems we rely on to deliver water , electricity , fuel and other essential services are under siege . With the rise in global and local incidents , ransomware is becoming cybercriminals ’ attack method of choice .
Threat actors understand that even short periods of downtime can cause far-reaching disruption and damage to businesses , and this puts extreme pressure on victim organizations to pay up in order to decrypt data and restore operations quickly .
While industrial systems may be top-of-mind today , the threat of ransomware knows no boundaries , and no individual or industry is safe from its reach – especially in the age of cloud , mobile and highly distributed workforces .
In Singapore , the Cybersecurity Singapore Agency ( CSA ) recorded a near 75 % increase in cases of ransomware incidents from January to October 2020 , against the total number of reported incidents for the whole of 2019 . Primary targets were small-medium enterprises ( SMEs ) from various sectors , which includes manufacturing , retail and healthcare .
According to data from the ASEAN Cyberthreat Assessment 2021 Report , the average ransomware payouts for all businesses have grown to more than US $ 178,000 per event by the end of the second quarter of 2020 from less than
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