There is a LexisNexis report: “2020 True cost of Fraud Study”
Here are the 6 basic tenets of the report:
- More fraud attacks translated to higher costs for merchants
- A surge in online and mobile channel activity increased fraud
- Trying to distinguish between real customers and bots is difficult
- Covid-19 or the Wuhan virus increased online retail fraud
- Fraud is becoming more sophisticated
- Layered solutions work best to prevent fraud
It is rather obvious from one of my past posts that there is more fraud and it is surging online during a time when everyone is at home. There is more ransomware now than ever before .
Helpnetsecurity.com discusses how ransomware attacks have changed since 5 years ago. From ransomware that sent the attack to everyone and tried to collect with bitcoin, to today where the tactic has changed… they are now much more sophisticated, since bitcoin changes prices so much they are not guaranteed to make millions.
The attackers will silently gain access to your network’s active directory (Microsoft’s network software) and then go from there. Once they know how to properly ransom the company then the plan will come into being. Ransomware attackers are working hard to make sure that the attack is targeted and has a high chance of succeeding. Look at the Municipalities that have been hit.
My own post of January 2020 discusses the history from 2004
It makes sense doesn’t it? The attackers are not resting and saying, Oh, let’s not make any more money… They are saying let’s make more money than last year. And since bitcoin took a deep dive in January 2019, so the hackers needed to change their strategy from indiscriminate attacks to more targeted ones.
The first to be attacked were municipalities since they do not have much of a backup design, so they are more likely to pay up. Every decision for your company has to be one to take into account that with only a few successful attacks the unthinkable can happen to your systems. DO NOT THINK “NOT ME” it will not happen to me. That is the wrong idea, you have to prepare for the day it will happen to you (and hope-work that it does not).
Contact Us to discuss your network preparations.