7 ways to help your financial institution dodge ransomware attacks
Incidences of this cybercrime were already up before the pandemic. Now with 'how-to' kits easily available on the dark web, more people have been drawn into this pernicious crime. Ransom demands have risen sharply, but the damage can be much worse than the dollars paid. Prevention requires both tech fixes and continuous vigilance.
Ransomware developers and affiliates have been telling victims they must pay the ransom or stolen data and internal company secrets will be publicly released. Unfortunately, not everyone has believed them. But now that these threats have been carried out, six and seven-figure demands have become routine among ransomware attacks with the average ransom payment in the second quarter of 2020 reaching $178,254, a 60% leap from the $111,605 average in the first quarter, according to the Coveware Quarterly Ransomware Report.
“Credit unions need to be looking out for ransomware techniques. These cyber attacks have no boundaries and are truly a global issue,” says Carlos Molina, Senior Risk Consultant at CUNA Mutual Group. “Ransomware has grown in frequency and severity significantly. The average ransom payments have climbed exponentially in the last few years.”
Ransomware payments in 2019 were three times as large as 2018 payments and four times more extortion demands were paid in 2018 versus 2019, according to incidents reported to Beazley. In fact, ransomware claims increased 239% and the total cost of ransomware payments has increased by 228% from 2018 to 2019.
Derek Laczniak, Director of Cyber Liability at M3 Insurance, explains that “Ransomware developers threatened to release stolen data in the past. However, now with the actual release of confidential information, credit unions need to treat these attacks more like data breaches. Business interruption from these events has become a regular occurrence leaving both reputational and financial impacts.”
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