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"What do you want? Three million in Bitcoin?"
As surprised as these gentlemen in the last Edgar Wallace film "Die Schokoladenschnüffler" (1985) are many top managers when hackers suddenly demand a ransom.
Photo: United Archives / ullstein bild
Since many companies switched to mobile working in the past year, the number of hacker attacks has increased exponentially.
This applies to all categories of cyber attacks.
But probably the biggest headlines have triggered so-called ransomware attacks (from English "ransom" = ransom, also called extortion software or encryption trojan; criminals block the company's access to its own data in order to extort a ransom -
editor's note.
).
Worldwide there was an increase of 150 percent in 2020.
The amount paid by the victims of these attacks increased by more than 300 percent in 2020.
Brenda R. Sharton
is partner with a focus on litigation at the international law firm Dechert LLP based in Boston. She is co-chair of the global privacy and cybersecurity department and one of only 20 lawyers in the USA who are listed in the law firm directory "The Legal 500" as "Leading Lawyer" in the field of IT law.
It is already becoming apparent that there will be a further dramatic increase in these offenses in 2021. Attacks on critical infrastructure such as the largest gasoline pipeline in the USA, companies such as the technology group Toshiba or municipalities such as the US city of Tulsa are in the headlines almost every day. The amount of ransom demanded has also increased significantly this year; some claims are even in the double-digit million range. In addition, the attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated. Perpetrators access sensitive company data and use them as hostages to extort a ransom payment.
What is behind this significant increase?
And how should companies react to the increased threat situation?
In this article I want to explain how ransomware attacks evolved and what companies can do to protect themselves.
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