With ransomware gangs making a lot cash after which dropping off the face of the earth, what’s the motivation to come back again to life and probably danger getting caught?
We noticed REvil come again from the shadows and hit a Fortune 500 firm final month. Equally, we noticed BlackByte do the identical factor brandishing a brand new extortion technique. After which there’s the ransomware-as-a-service teams like Conti who’ve been shut down – leaving us questioning if (and, extra doubtless, when) they’ll spring up as a brand new ransomware variant.
In the event that they’re making a lot cash – as the entire ransomware take is estimated by Cybersecurity Ventures to be over $20 billion final 12 months – why shut down and, extra importantly, why hassle coming again?
There are just a few the reason why ransomware gangs proceed to come back again from the useless:
- They need to change their stripes – we noticed the authorities particularly crack down on REvil final 12 months, even providing a reward for info resulting in their seize. This sort of stress from authorities is sufficient for a gang to need to run and conceal… that’s, till they recode their wares and rebrand themselves as a brand new gang.
- They be part of a cartel or change their enterprise mannequin – a number of the latest ransomware cartels have shaped to share strategies, code, and infrastructure. Others swap from a enterprise mannequin the place they gang themselves develops the ransomware code and performs the assaults to an affiliate mannequin to offset the chance of being the menace actors particularly focused by authorities.
- There’s loads of cash in it – along with Cybersecurity Ventures predicting 2021 ransomware prices, in addition they challenge that ransomware will value $265 billion by 2031. So, when you’re actually good at ransomware, it’s possible you’ll not need to cease, as there could also be extra money left on the proverbial ransomware desk to be taken.
Regardless of the explanation, we should always assume that in instances aside from when the gangs are arrested and put behind bars, like every other trade the place somebody has expertise and abilities, these chargeable for ransomware will proceed to spawn up with a brand new model in an try and make as a lot cash earlier than then have to cover… and do it once more.
