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:

  • Anonymous hacker exposed after dropping USB drive while throwing Molotov cocktail

    June 24, 2019

    In a bizarre investigation, Belgium police have identified a member of the Anonymous Belgium hacker collective while investigating an arson case at a local bank. The perpetrator, a 35-year-old man from the Belgian city of Roeselare, was initially arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Crelan Bank office in Rumbeke, a suburb of Roeselare, back ...

  • Consumers Urged to Junk Insecure IoT Devices

    June 18, 2019

    More than 2 million connected security cameras, baby monitors and other IoT devices have serious vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed for more than two months – yet they are still without a patch or even any vendor response. Security researcher Paul Marrapese, who disclosed the flaws in April and has yet to hear back from any impacted ...

  • Mobile Cyberespionage Campaign ‘Bouncing Golf’ Affects Middle East

    June 18, 2019

    We uncovered a cyberespionage campaign targeting Middle Eastern countries. We named this campaign “Bouncing Golf” based on the malware’s code in the package named “golf.” The malware involved, which Trend Micro detects as  AndroidOS_GolfSpy.HRX, is notable for its wide range of cyberespionage capabilities. Malicious codes are embedded in apps that the operators repackaged from legitimate ...

  • Plurox: Modular backdoor

    June 18, 2019

    In February this year, a curious backdoor passed across our virtual desk. The analysis showed the malware to have a few quite unpleasant features. It can spread itself over a local network via an exploit, provide access to the attacked network, and install miners and other malicious software on victim computers. What’s more, the backdoor ...

  • Houdini malware targets victims with keylogger, online bank account theft tools

    June 17, 2019

    A new variant of the Houdini malware has been detected in campaigns against financial institutions and their customers. Last week, cybersecurity researchers from Cofense said in a blog post that the new strain of Houdini — also known as HWorm — was released by its author on June 2, 2019. Dubbed WSH Remote Access Tool (RAT), it took the ...

  • New Echobot malware is a smorgasbord of vulnerabilities

    June 17, 2019

    If there’s one thing that seems to have no end in sight is malware authors putting their own spin on the old Mirai malware and creating new botnets to haunt the IoT and enterprise landscapes. Not a month goes by without a new major botnet appearing out of nowhere and launching massive attacks against people’s smart ...