Ransomware gangs skip the CEO, head straight for the 40-something IT manager


Turns out the fastest way to get a company to consider paying a ransom isn’t calling the CEO – it’s targeting the 46-year-old IT manager.

That’s according to Zscaler, whose ThreatLabz researchers tracked 351 victims across 334 organizations caught up in a single ransomware campaign over the course of a month.

The data suggests today’s ransomware crews have become oddly specific about their preferred victim profile: nearly two-thirds of victims held manager-level titles or above, the average victim was a 46-year-old Gen Xer, and three-quarters worked in accounting and finance, sales, operations, HR, or marketing. Half worked in the industrial or IT sectors.

Read more…
Source:  The Register News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Hundreds of organizations breached by SharePoint mass-hacks

    July 23, 2025

    Security researchers say hackers have breached at least 400 organizations by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint, signaling a sharp rise in the number of detected compromises since the bug was discovered last week. Eye Security, a Dutch cybersecurity firm that first identified the vulnerability in SharePoint, a popular server software that companies use to ...

  • Q2 2025 Ransomware Trends Analysis: Boom and Bust

    July 22, 2025

    Q2 2025 features many of the threat actors Rapid7 observed in Q1, with the top four leak site post groups quite a ways out in front of the rest. Qilin leads the pack by some distance, with SafePay and Akira in second place, and Play in third position. Lynx and INC Ransom lead the charge in ...

  • #StopRansomware: Interlock

    July 22, 2025

    Since September 2024, Interlock ransomware actors have impacted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure sectors in North America and Europe. These actors are opportunistic and financially motivated in nature and employ tactics to infiltrate and disrupt the victim’s ability to provide their essential services. Interlock actors leverage a double extortion model, in which they ...

  • Microsoft releases urgent SharePoint security flaw patches

    July 21, 2025

    Microsoft has released an urgent patch to fix a zero-day vulnerability affecting on-premises SharePoint servers. The vulnerability is already being exploited in the wild, which is why users are urged to apply the patch immediately and secure their assets. Three Microsoft products were said to be affected: SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, SharePoint Server 2019, and SharePoint ...

  • Hong Kong’s PCPD launches investigation into LVHK data breach case

    July 21, 2025

    French luxury brand Louis Vuitton recently reported a data breach affecting nearly 420,000 customers in Hong Kong, according to a Sunday report by a local newspaper. According to Xianggang Wenweipo, Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said on Saturday that it received a notification from Louis Vuitton Hong Kong (LVHK) on ...

  • CVE-2025-54309: CrushFTP Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild

    July 18, 2025

    On Friday, July 18, 2025, managed file transfer vendor CrushFTP released information to a private mailing list on a new critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-54309, affecting versions below 10.8.5 and 11.3.4_23 across all platforms. According to the public-facing vendor advisory, this vulnerability in the CrushFTP managed file transfer software web interface is being exploited in the ...