How Ransomware Is Accelerating in the COVID-19 Era

… businesses have been going through the same thing.

Though corporate hacks tend not to put people in physical danger, their costs can be truly staggering. When Energias de Portugal was hit in April, its attackers demanded 9.9 million euros in ransom. For Telecom Argentina, in July, the price tag was $7.5 million. In October, German giant Software AG was held for $20 million. After negotiations failed, the hackers published financial documents, employee emails, ID scans and even employee passports to the dark web.

It’s spooky stories like these that motivate so many organizations to just pay up. In June, the city of Florence, Alabama, coughed up $250,000 dollars to its hackers. That same month, the University of California at San Francisco was hit. Because some of its encrypted data included important COVID-19 research, the university ceded, paying out an ungodly $1.14 million. (UCSF, of course, is largely supported by taxpayer funding. So, really, Californians paid $1.14 million to hackers.)

Why Ransomware, Why Now?

There are plenty of reasons why this pandemic has been so conducive to ransomware. We’re also on our devices more than we used to be. We’re using less-secure devices — personal computers over home networks instead of work computers over guarded corporate networks. And we’re using these devices to connect with others more often, introducing more attack paths for malware to spread. But these factors make us easy targets regardless of what attack vector hackers choose.

What makes ransomware, in particular, appealing during this pandemic is that we’ve become more reliant on our computers. Think of any company right now, and you’ll get the picture. All our business — all communications, all business functions — is currently being done over computer networks, so the potential cost of a shutdown is higher than ever. Where a ransomware attack in an office setting is a big deal, a ransomware attack in a remote work environment is game over. Similarly, although hospitals aren’t working remotely, they are more reliant than ever on their IT systems, with more patients needing more urgent attention at all hours of the day.

Actually, there’s an even more insidious reason criminals love COVID. It scares us.

Imagine being in Italy in March. The novel coronavirus has now spread to Europe, and your country is getting hit the hardest. People are dying in vastly overcrowded hospitals. Nurses must literally turn infected people away at the front door, and doctors are deciding who gets ventilators and who will die.

Amid all this, you receive an email:

Courtesy: Diriga Technologies

Dear Sir / Madam,

Due to the fact that cases of coronavirus infection are documented in your area, the World Health Organization has prepared a document that includes all necessary precautions against coronavirus infection. We strongly recommend that you read the document attached to this message!

With best regards,

Dr. Penelope Marchetti (World Health Organization – Italy)

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