Ransomware passou de direcionamento hospitais visando universidades. De acordo com SentinelOne, seis em cada dez universidades britânicas foram vítimas de ataques de vírus de criptografia. A empresa de segurança enviou uma FOI (Liberdade de informação) pedido para 71 higher educational institutions across the UK.
- public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities;
- members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.
Curiosamente, 13 universities have refused to address the request, guided by the fact that participation would hurt their commercial interests.
FOI Results: 63% of the Universities Have Been Attacked by Ransomware
56% admit that they have been attacked by a crypto virus over the past year. What is more troubling is that a single university, the Bournemouth University, has admitted to being attacked 21 separate times throughout the course of the year!
The Bournemouth University has revealed that the attackers demanded a ransom in the size of $100. The University of Bath was extorted for 2 Bitcoin ($1,315), and the Brunel University and Bath Spa University were asked to pay 5 Bitcoin ($3288) in exchange for the decryption of their data.
Two major educational facilities admitted to not having any antivirus protection (Oxford and Kings College London). Não obstante, even universities with reported AV software have suffered crypto virus attacks.
None of the universities approached by SentinelOne admitted to paying a ransom. The amount of demanded ransom varied from £77 to £2299 (5 bitcoins). Brunel is the only university that had the crime reported to the police. The rest of the universities chose to face the situation internally.
The highest ransom paid by a university was reported in Canada. The story goes that the University of Calgary paid $15,500 to recover encrypted data on their computers.
It is clear that public authorities are increasingly primary targets for ransomware attacks. Earlier this year another FOI request revealed that 30% of UK councils were the victims of ransomware.
Why Is Ransomware Targeting Universities?
Recent ransomware attacks all have something in common. Most of them are no longer targeting users on a random basis. Ransomware operators have embraced a new approach – they have moved from aggressive spam campaigns to targeted attacks aiming at major institutions. These attacks are typically triggered by spear phishing, RDP attacks or by compromising a single PC within the particular institution’s network.
It’s logical why attackers prefer large organizations over regular home based users. The first are much more likely to be willing to pay a larger ransom.
O que tudo isso significa? Major organizations can no longer afford functioning without appropriate protection. AV software is a must as well as stable backup software. SentinelOne’s research shows that universities (in the UK but possibly elsewhere) are negligent about their security. In order for the damage of ransomware and malware to be minimized, precautionary measures must be at the right place.
Milena Dimitrova
Um escritor inspirado e gerente de conteúdo que está com SensorsTechForum desde o início do projeto. Um profissional com 10+ anos de experiência na criação de conteúdo envolvente. Focada na privacidade do usuário e desenvolvimento de malware, ela acredita fortemente em um mundo onde a segurança cibernética desempenha um papel central. Se o senso comum não faz sentido, ela vai estar lá para tomar notas. Essas notas podem mais tarde se transformar em artigos! Siga Milena @Milenyim
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