Summary:
Ransomware activity surged in 2023, according to a report by Google-owned Mandiant, despite extensive law enforcement efforts against major ransomware groups like ALPHV/BlackCat. The report, published on June 3, 2024, revealed a 75% increase in posts on ransomware groups' data leak sites compared to 2022, affecting victims in over 110 countries. The third quarter of 2023 saw the highest number of victims listed, with nearly 1,400 entries. This increase aligns with other reports, such as Chainalysis, which indicated over $1 billion was paid to ransomware attackers in 2023, setting a new record. Mandiant suggested that the slight dip in ransomware activity in 2022 was an anomaly, potentially influenced by geopolitical events like the invasion of Ukraine and the leaked Conti chats.

Several factors likely contributed to the resurgence in ransomware activity, including the emergence of new groups, partnerships between existing groups, and ransomware services offered by actors from previously disrupted groups. Despite the dominance of established ransomware families like ALPHV/BlackCat and LockBit, Mandiant identified 50 new ransomware variants in 2023, comparable to the numbers in 2021 and 2022. Notably, about one-third of these new variants were updates of existing ransomware families, indicating that threat actors are focusing on refining and evolving pre-existing malware rather than developing entirely new strains.

Security Officer Comments:
The report also highlighted a trend of code reuse, actor overlaps, and rebrands within the ransomware landscape. Furthermore, threat actors have increased their use of remote management tools, which were involved in approximately 41% of intrusions in 2023, up from 23% in 2022. This shift suggests that attackers are leveraging these tools to streamline their operations and improve their ability to manage compromised systems remotely.

Suggested Corrections:
Backup your data, system images, and configurations, regularly test them, and keep the backups offline: Ensure that backups are regularly tested and that they are not connected to the business network, as many ransomware variants try to find and encrypt or delete accessible backups. Maintaining current backups offline is critical because if your network data is encrypted with ransomware, your organization can restore systems.

Update and patch systems promptly: This includes maintaining the security of operating systems, applications, and firmware in a timely manner. Consider using a centralized patch management system; use a risk-based assessment strategy to drive your patch management program.

Test your incident response plan: There's nothing that shows the gaps in plans more than testing them. Run through some core questions and use those to build an incident response plan: Are you able to sustain business operations without access to certain systems? For how long? Would you turn off your manufacturing operations if business systems such as billing were offline?

Check Your Security Team's Work: Use a 3rd party pen tester to test the security of your systems and your ability to defend against a sophisticated attack. Many ransomware criminals are aggressive and sophisticated and will find the equivalent of unlocked doors.

Segment your networks: There's been a recent shift in ransomware attacks – from stealing data to disrupting operations. It's critically important that your corporate business functions and manufacturing/production operations are separated and that you carefully filter and limit internet access to operational networks, identify links between these networks and develop workarounds or manual controls to ensure ICS networks can be isolated and continue operating if your corporate network is compromised. Regularly test contingency plans such as manual controls so that safety critical functions can be maintained during a cyber incident.

Train employees: Email remains the most vulnerable attack vector for organizations. Users should be trained how to avoid and spot phishing emails. Multi Factor authentication can help prevent malicious access to sensitive services.

Link(s):
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ransomware-rise-2023-mandiant/