Explore how ransomware attacks work, how they infiltrate networks, and what steps individuals and organizations can take to prevent, detect, and recover from ransomware incidents. Articles cover recent ransomware variants, encryption tactics, backup strategies, and incident response planning.
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A Single Misconfigured Bucket Exposed 3 Billion Records In 2021, Cognyte left an unsecured database containing over 5 billion records — scraped from previous breaches — sitting in a cloud storage instance with no authentication required. Anyone with a browser could reach it. That's not a sophisticated nation-state attack. That&
In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called a help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and talked their way into the network. No zero-day exploit. No nation-state tooling. Just a phone call. If you want to understand what causes a data breach,
In February 2024, Change Healthcare — a subsidiary processing roughly one-third of all U.S. medical claims — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted pharmacy operations nationwide for weeks, cost UnitedHealth Group an estimated $872 million in the first quarter alone, and exposed the personal health data
In February 2024, Change Healthcare — the largest medical claims processor in the United States — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted billing systems for hospitals and pharmacies nationwide for weeks. UnitedHealth Group later confirmed the breach affected approximately 100 million individuals. If you think your organization
That "Unsubscribe" Link Just Installed Malware on Your Network In January 2024, a mid-size accounting firm in Ohio lost access to every client file it had. The entry point wasn't a sophisticated zero-day exploit. It was a single spam email disguised as a shipping notification from
The Clock Starts the Moment You See the Ransom Note In February 2024, Change Healthcare — one of the largest health payment processors in the United States — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted pharmacy operations, delayed insurance claims, and affected an estimated one-third of all Americans&
$4.88 Million Was Last Year's Average. This Year Will Be Worse. IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report put the global average at $4.88 million — a 10% jump from the year before and the highest figure ever recorded at that point. If you
Last year, a hospital administrator told me she ignored an alert about a credential stuffing attack because she didn't know what that phrase meant. Three days later, her organization was dealing with a ransomware incident that shut down patient scheduling for two weeks. The jargon gap in cybersecurity
During a breach investigation last year, I watched a CFO stare blankly at an incident response report and ask, "What's lateral movement? What does 'exfiltration' mean? Can someone just speak English?" That moment crystallized something I've known for two decades: the cybersecurity
In March 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing remained the number one reported cybercrime for the fifth consecutive year. That stat alone should tell you everything about where threat actors are focusing their energy. But raw numbers don't teach your employees what
