“It appears that these ransomware gangs are acting like agile startup organizations. The build->measure->learn model is a method that lean startups utilize to find business models that work. In the same spirit, ransomware gangs try different extortion methods to see which one works and abandon those that don’t. The social engineering element of striking fear into the hearts of the victims is not new, but providing an easy user interface for them to check if they have been compromised is a step up from the data dumps that people still need to comb through or are processed by other organizations.
Threat actors have always been opportunistic with an enviable agility to adapt new capabilities and test them and discard those that don’t work.
Time will tell if this method will make customers pressure organizations into paying the ransom or blackmail fee, but what’s certain is that this will not be the last innovative extortion technique that we will see”.
“It appears that these ransomware gangs are acting like agile startup organizations. The build->measure->learn model is a method that lean startups utilize to find business models that work. In the same spirit, ransomware gangs try different extortion methods to see which one works and abandon those that don’t. The social engineering element of striking fear into the hearts of the victims is not new, but providing an easy user interface for them to check if they have been compromised is a step up from the data dumps that people still need to comb through or are processed by other organizations.
Threat actors have always been opportunistic with an enviable agility to adapt new capabilities and test them and discard those that don’t work.
Time will tell if this method will make customers pressure organizations into paying the ransom or blackmail fee, but what’s certain is that this will not be the last innovative extortion technique that we will see”.