CYBERSECURITY
ybersecurity has seen many types of attacks and foes throughout its history : Malware , Distributed Denial of Service ( DDoS ), Advanced Persistent Threats ( APTs ), among others .
Although all threats remain present , their use as a form of attack ebbs and flows with the current times . In the 1990s , when the internet was still new and its users naive , phishing attacks were the order of the day , tricking users into revealing sensitive information like passwords or credit card details through fraudulent emails or websites .
Now , however , it seems the cyber landscape is entering a new epoch : the age of ransomware . Although present for a while , the method of gaining data has had a resurgence .
But what can be attributed as the cause to all this cyber chaos ? “ The evolution of technology , specifically developments in AI , is empowering bad actors to develop more frequent and more sophisticated ransomware attacks ,” explains Chris Dimitradis , Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA .
Reviewing the spate of ransomware With financial incentive being the main purpose of ransomware , it ’ s no wonder that payouts following an attack only contribute to the problem . Healthcare provider Change Healthcare ’ s hack in early 2024 saw the company pay a reported whopping US $ 22m to the attackers in order to stop the chaos .
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