OXFORD, U.K.  — 十月 28, 2021 —

Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, has published an article, “The Top 10 Ways Ransomware Operators Ramp Up the Pressure to Pay,” detailing how ransomware attackers are implementing a wide range of ruthless pressure tactics to persuade victims to pay the ransom. The article is based on evidence and insight from Sophos’ Rapid Response team of 24/7 incident responders who help organizations under active cyberattack. It highlights the shift in ransomware pressure techniques from solely encrypting data to including other pain points, such as harassing employees.  

“Since organizations have become better at backing up their data and restoring encrypted files from backups, attackers are supplementing their ransom demands with additional extortion measures that increase the pressure to pay,” said Peter Mackenzie, director, Incident Response at Sophos. “For  example, the Sophos Rapid Response team has seen cases where attackers email or phone a victim’s employees, calling them by their name and sharing personal details they’ve stolen – such as any disciplinary actions or passport information – with the aim of scaring them into demanding their employer pays the ransom. This kind of behavior shows how ransomware has shifted from a purely technical attack targeting systems and data into one that also targets people.”

The article includes a recorded voicemail that a SunCrypt ransomware affiliate left for an employee of a targeted organization (published with the permission of the affected organization.)

How Attackers Ramp Up the Pressure to Pay

Below are the top 10 ways attackers are increasing pressure on their ransomware victims to get them to pay the ransom:

  1. Stealing data and threatening to publish or auction it online
  2. Emailing and calling employees, including senior executives, threatening to reveal their personal information
  3. Notifying or threatening to notify business partners, customers, the media, and more of the data breach and exfiltration  
  4. Silencing victims by warning them not to contact the authorities
  5. Recruiting insiders to help them breach networks
  6. Resetting passwords
  7. Phishing attacks targeting victim email accounts
  8. Deleting online backups and shadow volume copies
  9. Printing physical copies of the ransom note on all connected devices, including point of sale terminals  
  10. Launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against the target’s website

The article explains each tactic in more detail, with examples of ransomware groups that have deployed that tactic. The article also includes advice on what defenders can do to protect their organization and employees from attacker behaviors and cyberthreats in general.

Further information on attacker behaviors, real-world incident reports and advice for security operations professionals is available on Sophos News SecOps.

Tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), and more, for different types of ransomware are available on SophosLab Uncut, the home of Sophos’ latest threat intelligence.

关于 Sophos

Sophos 是全球领先的网络安全公司,凭借其人工智能驱动的平台和专家主导的服务,保护着全球 60 万家组织的安全。Sophos 根据各组织在不同安全成熟度的各式各样的需求提供支持,并与其共同成长,携手应对日益严峻的网络攻击。其解决方案结合机器学习、自动化、实时威胁情报以及来自 Sophos X-Ops 的前线真人专家的专业知识,提供 24/7 全天候高级威胁监控、侦测与响应服务。
Sophos 提供行业领先的托管式侦测与响应 (MDR) 服务,同时配备一整套全面的网络安全技术组合,包括端点、网络、电子邮件和云安全、扩展式侦测与响应 (XDR)、身份辨识威胁侦测与响应 (ITDR),以及下一代 SIEM。结合专家咨询服务,这些能力帮助组织主动降低风险,并更迅速地响应,提供力求在不断变化的威胁面前保持领先所需的可见性和可扩展性。
Sophos 通过全球合作伙伴生态系统进入市场,包括托管式服务提供商 (MSPs)、托管式安全服务提供商 (MSSPs)、经销商、分销商、市场集成商以及网络风险合作伙伴,为组织提供灵活的选择,使其能够在保护业务安全的同时建立值得信赖的合作关系。  Sophos 总部位于英国牛津。如欲了解更多信息,请访问 www.sophos.cn。