July 26 Cyber News
Victims of cyber extortion and ransomware increase in 2024
More than 4,000 new victims of ransomware were recorded over the past 12 months.
According to research by Orange Cyberdefense, there was a 77% year-on-year growth from 2023 with 4,374 new victims detected in 75% of countries monitored. In the first quarter of 2024, there were 1,046 victims hit by 43 different threat actors.
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Cybercrooks crafting solo careers in wake of ransomware takedowns
A fresh report from Europol suggests that the recent disruption of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups is fragmenting the threat landscape, making it more difficult to track.
"This trend might also be perpetuated by the wider availability and increased quality of AI tools that lack prompt filtering, which cybercriminals can use to quickly assemble and debug their code," the report reads.
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This dangerous new Linux malware is going after VMware systems with multiple extortion attempts
Cybersecurity researchers from Trend Micro recently found a Linux variant of the dreaded Play ransomware strain targeting VMWare ESXi environments.
In a technical breakdown, Trend Micro’s Threat Hunting team said this was the first time Play was seen targeting ESXi environments, and it could be that the criminals are broadening their attacks across the Linux platform, giving them an expanded victim pool and more successful ransom negotiations.
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