Ransomware group Contri has threatened to overthrow the Costa Rican government after demanding it pay a ransom to unlock vital government systems hit by a cyberattack.
Sam Linford, AVP EMEA Channels at Deep Instinct, told us: “The Conti ransomware group’s threat to overthrow the Costa Rican government is an extremely worrying development in the on-going crisis, highlighting the ruthlessness of cybercriminal groups and the lack of honor among thieves.
“Conti has demanded a US$20 million ransom after they stole current and former employees’ information. The attack has caused disruption on customs and tax platforms which has ultimately led to severe impacts on the country’s foreign trade. Gangs are ruthless – they don’t care about the financial and social impacts on civilians and are only interested in targets which yield the greatest monetary gain.”
Linford added that in the past, ransomware groups have targeted life-threatening services to get a quick payday.
“During the early months of the pandemic, ransomware gangs had promised not to target medical organizations due to the pressure they were under, however, once again,cybercriminals showed that, for monetary gain, nothing is off limits and they soon started stealing medical data,” he said.
“We have continuously seen the effects of ransomware gangs targeting critical organizations, and this should be a learning curve for every country and enterprise across the world about the importance of investing in preventative solutions, rather than reactive solutions, to ensure that cyberattacks are stopped before they damage a network.”
He added that solutions such as Deep Learning can help to shift security teams’ mindset from mitigating cyberattacks to preventing them.
“Deep Learning delivers a sub-20 millisecond response time, stopping a ransomware attack before it can execute and take hold of an organization’s network,” said Linford. “With Deep Learning, cybercriminal gangs will no longer be the master puppeteers but will be in a state of emergency unable to find an easy profit.”
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