Ransomware gangs are getting desperate for results. Generally known for encrypting and leaking data on the internet, they have now started blackmailing CEOs with physical violence.
CEO's get physically threatened
Cybersecurity experts from Semperis say that over the past year, in 40% of ransomware attacks, the CEOs of the victim company were physically attacked, which is particularly prevalent in US-based organizations, at 46%.
However, even paying the attackers is not enough. The research revealed that over 55% of businesses that paid a ransom had to do so multiple times, with around 29% of those firms paying three or more times, and 15% didn’t even receive decryption keys, while in a few cases, they received corrupted keys.
New ransomware tactics
Blackmailing to file a regulatory complaint is also a famous tactic, Semperis said. It was found in 47% of attacks, increasing to 58% in the US.
In 2023, the notorious BlackCat ransomware gang reported one of its victims to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make them pay. This was done because the SEC requires organizations to report about a cybersecurity incident if there is a breach, which includes the SEC's four-day disclosure rule for publicly traded businesses.
Ransomware on the rise
Ransomware attacks have threatened businesses and the cybersecurity industry for decades, constantly evolving and outsmarting security professionals. The attacks started with encryption, but the companies started mitigating by having offline backups of all the important data.
Ransomware actors then turned to stealing data and blackmailing to leak it on the web if the ransom was not paid. Known as “double extortion,” the technique works really well. Some threat actors even dropped the encryption part totally and now focus on stealing files. But many companies still don’t cave in, forcing cybercriminals to go to extreme lengths.
New tactics
In a few cases, the attackers combine the encryption of the back-end with a DDoS on the front-end, stopping the business entirely. Semperis CEO Mickey Bresman said that while some “circumstances might leave the company in a non-choice situation, we should acknowledge that it's a down payment on the next attack.”
"Every dollar handed to ransomware gangs fuels their criminal economy, incentivizing them to strike again. The only real way to break the ransomware scourge is to invest in resilience, creating an option to not pay ransom," he commented.
