ransomware attack

The average ransomware attack now takes less than a day from first breaching a system. It's the first time average attacks can be measured in hours, though ironically it may be a sign of better defenses. The figures comes from researchers at ... Secureworks, who analyze ransomware attacks. They measure dwell time, which is the period between an attacker first gaining access to a system and deploying the ransomware. That's malware which encrypts files, letting the attackers demand a fee to restore access. The average dwell time being under a day is a dramatic development as last year the average ... (view more)

Officials in Lake City, Florida have voted to pay half a million dollars to hackers to regain access to computer files. It's the second such payment by a local government in the state in as many weeks. Lake City's government computer system was hit ... by a ransomware attack in which hackers remotely encrypt files and then demand payment to unlock them. They asked for 42 units of the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin, worth roughly $500,000. That payment method makes it much harder to trace the recipients. The good news in this case is that public safety networks are unaffected and that all ... (view more)