A new report by Imperva has revealed that Cryptowall 3.0 is the most successful ransomware in history, causing an estimated $325 million in damages. Jonathan Sander, VP of product strategy at Lieberman Software have the following comments on it.
Jonathan Sander, VP of Product Strategy at Lieberman Software:
Is it true that police aren’t investigating these crimes?
“It’s not that local law enforcement doesn’t want to help with Cryptowall, they can’t. A friend works with cybercrime efforts of local police here in the states, and recently told me that since Cryptowall most often crosses international boundaries there’s not much the police can do. They know this already. So when they are told about it they mostly give condolences and move on to investigations where they can have an impact. The other problem is that reporting Cryptowall issues to more savvy law enforcement sounds like reporting your bike was stolen when you didn’t bother to lock it up. Since a good back up strategy can be almost 100% effective to combat Cryptowall, police may simply feel the real crime was your own lack of preventative measures.”
If backing up data is the solution to the problem, why aren’t more organisations doing this to fully protect themselves?
“So much good security advice sounds like health advice. Everyone knows they should eat right and exercise, but so many simply shrug at this advice as they return to chips in front of the television. Every organization knows they need to back up, monitor file activity, protect admin privileges, and run basic perimeter defences like antivirus and firewalls. Since none of that security seems to contribute to the bottom line and takes a modicum of effort, people’s laziness kicks in and they skip the basics.”
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