After an adversary takes the time to gain access to an environment they aren’t likely to give up their position by being completely obvious. Adversaries need to evade detection in order to have the time to find the information they’re really after. One technique to accomplish this is by hiding in plain sight. Adversaries may name their malicious payloads similarly to system files or commonly installed programs. They’ll even make sure to store these files in similar directories, all in service of avoiding detection.
According to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), ransomware has increased around 10%, making it the third most common type of attack among all breaches. Many now know that an effective backup strategy can mitigate the risk of ransomware, but ransomware gangs aren’t so easily outdone. They have quickly pivoted to exfiltrating the data first then encrypting. This allows them to blackmail organizations with the threat of data disclosure if the ransom isn’t paid. The pace of ransomware certainly isn’t slowing, are you keeping pace?
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