Malware

Depending on how widespread the compromises were, it could potentially taint some research and defensive strategies that threat intelligence firms share with businesses and other organizations.

Today’s columnist, Ofer Israeli of Illusive Networks, says ransomware attacks like the one last year on George Washington University Hospital won’t subside when the pandemic finally ends. He argues that security teams need to take on a tough, new mindset he calls ‘Triple Zero’ to lock down organizations.

While the threat actor’s motives are not fully apparent, researchers believe it was an effort to conduct reconnaissance for future campaigns.

The effort encourages governments, schools and private companies to take steps to protect their systems and data from ransomware.

Based on the malware features, the researchers said the attackers use the compromised systems for further attacks, spreading laterally across the victim company’s network, or launching attacks on outside targets while masquerading as the compromised company.

Ryan Weeks is CISO at Datto, a founding member of the Institute for Security and Technology's new anti-ransomware initiative. He spoke to SC Media about the segment of the business community that he believes to be underserved by efforts to counter ransomware.

While Teardrop was delivered by the original Sunburst backdoor in early July 2020, Raindrop was used just under two weeks later for spreading laterally across the victim’s network, Symantec said in a report.