Author: Conner Forrest / Source: TechRepublic
The next big threat facing the enterprise is destructive malware disguised as a simple ransomware attack, according to Kaspersky Lab’s APT Trends report for Q2 2017, released Tuesday. The report also noted the rise of attacks targeted at energy companies, and a growing complexity of cyberespionage efforts.
The concept of destructive malware disguised as ransomware was seen most prevalently in this time period with the May 12 WannaCry attack and the June 27 ExPetr attack, the report said. WannaCry’s high profile and quick spread made cashing out on the attack problematic for the attackers, which seems to indicate that its real goal was simply to destroy data, the report said. ExPetr, also thought to be ransomware at first, “turned out to be purely destructive” as well, the report said.
It was also alleged that both WannaCry and ExPetr were nation-state backed. That, along with the growth of attack by Russian-, English-, Korean-, and Chinese-speaking attackers, helped to highlight the trend of collateral damage caused by cyber warfare, the report said.
SEE: 17 tips for protecting Windows computers and Macs from ransomware (free PDF)
However, threat actors in Asia…
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