Software
Ransomware syndicates are focusing their attacks on backup systems in order to maximize their financial gains
Data backups have become a top target for ransomware actors, according to a report from a cybersecurity company.
A startling 94% of organizations that experienced ransomware attacks in the previous year reported that the attackers made an effort to compromise their backup systems, according to a recent study by Sophos that involved polling about 3,000 IT and security experts from 14 different countries.
For organizations in the government, media, leisure, and entertainment sectors, the percentages were even higher, reaching 99%.
The report outlined the two primary methods for recovering encrypted data in a ransomware attack: restoring from backups or opting to pay the ransom.
“By compromising an organization’s backups, ransomware actors can severely limit the victim’s ability to recover encrypted data, thereby increasing the pressure to pay,” stated the researchers.
“It has become a routine occurrence for these individuals during their attacks,” commented Curtis Fechner, the head of cybersecurity threats at Optiv, a Denver-based provider of cybersecurity solutions.
He mentioned to TechNewsWorld that they constantly attempt to locate and render the backups inaccessible. One aspect of their strategy for earning money involves identifying the backups, as they aim to maximize their potential revenue from an attack.
“By taking your backups offline and using them as leverage for recovery, I have increased the likelihood of you paying. Furthermore, I can exploit your desperation to extract even more from you.”I understand that you’re in a difficult situation,” Fechner added.
Growing Threat
According to Ilia Sotnikov, a security strategist and the vice president of user experience at Netwrix, an IT security software company headquartered in Frisco, Texas, enterprise ransomware was not very sophisticated when it first emerged about 10 years ago.
The ransomware malware quickly spread through the system by taking advantage of weak configurations or vulnerabilities and encrypting any data it came across. According to him, the victim was forced to pay a ransom in order to regain access to their operations.
“The cybersecurity industry has implemented a comprehensive security strategy that includes enhanced protection and detection capabilities, as well as a strong focus on backup and recovery practices,” he stated. Due to their expertise, organizations were able to successfully deflect the majority of attacks, significantly reducing the number of successful ones. Additionally, they gained valuable knowledge on how to efficiently restore systems and operations without resorting to paying a ransom.
Furthermore, he explained that the ransomware strategy underwent changes to enhance the likelihood of success by exploring alternative methods to overcome security measures. Malware has become increasingly difficult to detect and combat. The criminals began to allocate additional time to the reconnaissance stage in order to pinpoint and focus on the most vulnerable information. Groups such as Maze and LockBit began to extract the company’s data and introduced the additional risk of a public data leak alongside the encryption, a tactic referred to as double extortion.
“Since then,” he noted, “ransomware attackers have also begun targeting the backups to render recovery impossible or excessively expensive, compelling the victims to pay the ransom.”
Backups are currently down, while ransom demands are on the rise.
According to Sophos, people who had their backups compromised faced ransom demands that were typically more than twice as high as those who were not. For victims with compromised backups, the median ransom demands amounted to US$2.3 million, while those with uncompromised backups faced demands of $1 million.
Backups are essential for the smooth operation of organizations. According to Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security, a password management and online storage company in Chicago, if the backup is compromised and the organization falls victim to a cyberattack, they may become more desperate to regain access to their networks and data.
“Attackers are well aware of the impact of denying access to backups, which leaves organizations in a vulnerable position and with limited choices other than complying with exorbitant ransom demands in order to retrieve their data,” he explained to TechNewsWorld.
The Sophos research provided evidence to support the fact that organizations with compromised backups are unable to negotiate with ransomware actors. It was discovered that individuals who had compromised backups ended up paying an average of 98% of the ransom demanded, while those without compromised backups paid 82%.
According to the report, organizations that had their backups compromised were significantly more inclined to pay the ransom in order to retrieve their encrypted data (67%), compared to those whose backups remained unaffected (36%).
Increased Cost of Restoration
Victims who have compromised backups not only face the burden of paying higher ransoms, but they also incur additional costs when it comes to recovering from an attack.
The median overall recovery costs for organizations whose backups were compromised were eight times higher at $3 million, compared to those whose backups were not impacted at $375,000.
Guccione outlined the various expenses that organizations face when they become targets of ransomware attacks. These include the financial impact of disrupted operations and harm to their reputation, the extensive efforts required for recovery in the short and long term, the actual ransom payment, and the potential consequences of fines and legal obligations.
“When a ransomware attack affects backups as well, it greatly extends the restoration process. Organizations are then required to rebuild their systems, data, and other crucial configurations,” he explained. If a breach involves a loss of sensitive data, especially if it includes personally identifiable information or falls under data protection regulations like GDPR or HIPAA, organizations may face additional legal and regulatory expenses.
As per the Sophos report, organizations with compromised backups experience longer recovery times from ransomware attacks. Just 26% of individuals who had their backups compromised were able to recover within a week after an attack, in contrast to 46% of those who did not have compromised backups.
Offline Backups: Balancing Security and Cost
There are various factors that contribute to the difference in restoration times between organizations with compromised and uncompromised backups, as highlighted in the report. One significant factor is the extra effort required to restore data from decrypted sources instead of well-prepared backups. Additionally, the presence of weaker backup protection may suggest less resilient defenses and a greater need for subsequent rebuilding efforts, according to the statement.
According to Narayana Pappu, the CEO of Zendata, a data collection, management, and sharing company based in San Francisco, backups usually lack the same level of security controls as production systems.
“Implementing logging, security measures, access controls, and testing on backup systems would be highly beneficial,” he advised TechNewsWorld. In addition, it is crucial to have redundant backups stored in various locations, including both cloud storage and offline storage. Implementing a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy can significantly minimize downtime.
According to Fechner, offline backups are effective in protecting against threats to backups, but they can also be quite costly. “Having backups that are offline and inaccessible to attackers is crucial,” he emphasized. However, considering the financial constraints faced by numerous organizations, particularly those in the small to medium business category, targeting backups remains a lucrative strategy for attackers.
Apps
Mark Zuckerberg reports that Threads has a total of 150 million users who engage with the app on a monthly basis
Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter and X, is experiencing consistent and steady growth. During the Q1 2024 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the social network currently has over 150 million monthly active members, which is an increase from 130 million in February.
Threads made significant progress in integrating with ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol that powers networks such as Mastodon, during the last quarterly earnings conference. In March, the firm granted U.S.-based users who are 18 years of age or older the ability to link their accounts to the Fediverse, enabling their posts to be seen on other servers.
By June, the business intends to make its API available to a broad range of developers, enabling them to create experiences centered on the social network. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether Threads will enable developers to create comprehensive third-party clients.
Meta just introduced their AI chatbot on various platforms like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Threads was conspicuously omitted from this list, perhaps because of its lack of built-in direct messaging capabilities.
Threads introduced a new test feature on Wednesday that allows users to automatically archive their posts after a certain length of time. Additionally, users have the ability to store or remove specific postings from an archive and make them accessible to the public.
Threads is around nine months old, and Meta has consistently expanded its readership. Nevertheless, Threads cannot be considered a viable substitute for X, as Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, explicitly stated in October that Threads will not “amplify news on the platform.” However, Meta’s social network continues to grow in popularity. According to app analytics company Apptopia, Threads now has more daily active users in the U.S. than X, as Business Insider reported earlier this week.
Android
TikTok Shop is now introducing its collection of pre-owned high-end fashion items to customers in the United Kingdom
TikTok Shop, the social commerce marketplace of TikTok, is introducing a new section dedicated to secondhand luxury items in the United Kingdom. This move positions TikTok Shop in direct rivalry with existing platforms such as The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari. The offering has been present at TikTok Shop U.S. for a duration exceeding six months.
The addition of this new category enables clients in the United Kingdom to conveniently buy second-hand luxury garments, designer purses, and various accessories from within the TikTok application. Upon its inception, the platform offers a selection of only five British brands, namely Sellier, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, HardlyEverWornIt, and Break Archive.
Since its introduction in 2022, TikTok Shop has generated sales of approximately $1 billion or more in merchandise value. Nevertheless, despite its triumph, some contend that TikTok Shop is undermining the short-form video-sharing platform, alleging that counterfeit and substandard merchandise are inundating the market. The purchase of pre-owned luxury goods online carries the greatest danger of encountering counterfeit products, even for major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and others, which also struggle with ensuring authenticity.
TikTok Shop, like other resale marketplaces, implements an anti-counterfeit policy that ensures a complete reimbursement in the event that a seller is verified to have sold a counterfeit item. Bloomberg has disclosed that the corporation is engaged in discussions with luxury goods company LVMH to enhance efforts to combat counterfeiting.
Every secondhand brand on TikTok Shop in the U.S. must possess certificates from third-party authenticators. TikTok collaborated with authentication providers Entrupy and Real Authentication to verify the authenticity of designer handbags available on the platform.
Concurrently, a representative from TikTok informed me that the five British brands each possess their own internal verification procedure. They declined to provide the commencement date for accepting secondhand brands other than their own.
TikTok Shop’s introduction of a used luxury category is a calculated maneuver to access the expanding market for previously owned high-end goods. The secondhand luxury market is a prosperous industry valued at around $49.3 billion (€45 billion) in 2023, with global sales of pre-owned designer items.
Moreover, this expansion is in line with the growing inclination of individuals towards adopting preloved fashion, and it creates new opportunities for secondhand brands in the U.K. to access a broader client demographic. The prevalence of secondhand fashion on TikTok is apparent, as seen by more than 144,000 TikTok postings utilizing the hashtag #secondhandfashion, resulting in nearly 1.2 billion views.
Today’s statement follows closely after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok or else risk a ban in the U.S. This bill seems to be gaining favor in the Senate. An embargo would have a significant impact on American merchants who sell their products on the application. As per the company’s statement, the brief video-sharing application produced a total of $14.7 billion in revenue for small- to mid-size enterprises in the year 2023.
Android
Airchat, developed by Naval Ravikant, is a social application that focuses on conversation rather than written messages
Airchat is a recently developed social media application that promotes and encourages users to engage in open and spontaneous conversations.
Last year, a previous iteration of Airchat was released. However, yesterday the team, which included Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, and Brian Norgard, a former product executive for Tinder, rebuilt the application and reintroduced it on both iOS and Android platforms. At present, Airchat is exclusively accessible via invitation. However, it has already achieved a ranking of #27 in the social networking category on Apple’s App Store.
Airchat has a user interface that is visually familiar and easy to understand. Users can follow other users, navigate through a feed of posts, and interact with those posts by replying, liking, and sharing them. The distinction comes from the fact that the content consists of audio recordings for both posts and replies, which are subsequently converted into written form by the application.
Airchat automatically starts sending messages, which you can quickly navigate through by vertically swiping up and down. If you have the desire, you have the option to pause the audio and only read the text. Additionally, users have the capability to exchange photographs and videos. However, it appears that audio is the main point of interest for everyone, and Ravikant explains that it has the potential to significantly change the way social apps function, especially when contrasted to text-based platforms.
Upon my recent enrollment in Airchat, the majority of the messages I encountered pertained to the application itself. Notably, Ravikant and Norgard actively engaged in responding to inquiries and seeking input from users.
“All humans are inherently capable of harmonious interactions with one another; it simply necessitates the use of our innate communication abilities,” Ravikant stated. “The prevalence of online text-only media has created the false belief that people are unable to get along, when in reality, everyone is capable of getting along.”
Past instances have seen digital entrepreneurs placing their bets on speech as the upcoming significant trend in social media. However, Airchat’s utilization of asynchronous, threaded messages provides a distinct experience compared to the transient live chat rooms that briefly gained popularity on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Norgard claimed that this method eliminates the obstacle of stage fright when it comes to participation, as individuals have the freedom to make multiple attempts at producing a message without anybody being aware.
Indeed, he stated that during discussions with the first users, the team discovered that the majority of individuals currently utilizing AirChat exhibit introverted and timid characteristics.
Personally, I have not yet persuaded myself to publish anything. I was primarily intrigued by observing how other individuals were utilizing the application. Additionally, I had a complex emotional connection with the auditory perception of my own speech.
However, there is value in listening to Ravikant and Norgard articulate their perspective instead of solely relying on written transcriptions, as the latter may overlook subtle aspects such as excitement and tone. I am particularly interested in observing how deadpan humor and shitposting are conveyed, or not, in audio format.
I also encountered some difficulty with the velocity. The application automatically sets the audio playing to double the normal speed, which I found to be artificial, especially considering that the main purpose is to promote human interaction. To reset the speed, simply press and hold the pause button. However, when the speed is set to 1x, I observed that I would begin to skim through longer postings while listening, and I would often jump forward before listening to the entire audio. However, perhaps that is acceptable.
However, Ravikant’s conviction in the efficacy of speech to reduce hostility does not always obviate the requirement for content-filtering functionalities. According to him, the feed operates based on intricate regulations that aim to conceal spam, trolls, and those that either you or they may prefer not to receive messages from. However, at the time of publication, he had not yet replied to a subsequent user inquiry regarding content moderation.
When questioned about monetization, namely the introduction of advertisements, whether in audio format or otherwise, Ravikant stated that the company is currently not under any obligation to generate revenue. (He characterized himself as “not the exclusive investor” but rather as a significant stakeholder in the company.)
“Monetization is of little importance to me,” he stated. “We will operate this project with minimal financial resources if necessary.”
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