State of Cybercrime

Security Monk vs. Emperor Palpatine

Episode Summary

This week, we continue our ongoing ransomware discussion with the Inside Out Security Show panel - Kilian Englert, Mike Buckbee, and Mike Thompson.

Episode Notes

This week, we continue our ongoing ransomware discussion with the Inside Out Security Show panel - Cindy Ng, Kilian Englert, Mike Buckbee, and Mike Thompson.

But before we launched into our conversation, as an icebreaker, I asked the panel what their advice would be to this tired sysadmin who deleted the wrong directory on the wrong server?

Buckbee: Do exactly what they did to fix the problem.

Englert: It happens, just have to recover and move on.

Thompson: Always take a snapshot before touching your production server.

Back to Ransomware

I likened this singular, life-changing malware to Emperor Palpatine. Why? The scammers try to be your friend and provide customer support. Meanwhile, they’re clever about extorting money from you.

There were a few interesting ransomware stories that we covered:

• An IT pro that tried to fight back by sending the perpetrators a Locky ransomware. We’re not certain if it was a success, but at least he tried
• One hijacked a hotel from making new hotel keys
• Police storage devices that record video data were infected
• The scariest of them all, Google Play hosted a ransomware app that infected a user’s cell phone

• Android VPNs don’t really encrypt
• Backups of backups – pressing delete doesn’t fully delete your data
• US can’t just seize data