Ransomware has gone corporate and ... to infrastructure as seen by the attack on Colonial by DarkSide in it's push to get money through illicit means. The apology by the group is farcical regarding the disruption of gas to us rubes but the threat ransomware poses to the digital world of the web is not.
To whit.
The cyberattack that knocked offline an essential U.S. gasoline pipeline shows how the dangerous, professional-scale hack-for-ransom threat is spreading rapidly, targeting companies, schools, hospitals and other institutions.
While ransomware has been a challenge for small businesses for years, a confluence of factors have emboldened attackers in the past year, culminating in the shutdown Friday of a critical gasoline pipeline to the U.S. East Coast. The pipeline’s operator, Colonial Pipeline Co., now says service could be offline until week’s end, threatening to raise prices at the pump for millions of Americans.
Attacks are growing in number and scale as millions of people across the country work or attend school remotely, in some cases opening back doors to networks without corporate or institutional security protections, security researchers say.
Hackers have grown adept at communicating about vulnerabilities on the so-called Dark Web, a network of computers that can share information anonymously. The ability to demand payment in cryptocurrency limits law-enforcement tracking capabilities. And the growth in insurance policies that cover ransomware payments has helped seed an increasingly professionalized ransomware industry.
Invulnerability is but an illusion.
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