Despite earlier reports suggesting that ransomware payments were on the decline, the momentum of cyber attacks appears to be alive and well. Just ask men’s wear brand Boggi Milano.
Ransomware attacks are a digital version of an old scheme, with a bad actor taking something and then demanding ransom for it. The tech version typically involves hackers using malicious software to take control of a network, server or other systems and freezing the organization out, or stealing company data.
Coveware discovered that the percentage of ransomware attacks involving a threat to release stolen data grew from 50 percent to 70 percent from the third quarter to the fourth. Another anti-fraud outfit estimated that the number of ransomware attacks it tracked grew more than 150 percent across 2020.
Cyber crime is always troubling and potentially very damaging. But for brands and retailers, such recent acts only add to the extraordinary pressures wrought by the coronavirus, which also fueled an increase of other illicit activity like fraud. According to fraud-prevention firm Sift, the average value of fraudulent purchase attempts jumped 69 percent last year.
“Ransomware gangs have not taken a break during this pandemic, and [Boggi Milano] is another example of the fact that any industry is a target,” said Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at cybersecurity company KnowBe4.
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