Ransomware Attack Roundup
Below, we have gathered five ransomware attacks to show you the lasting impression they can have on a victim. These attacks can have a lasting impact on its victim and can take a lot of time and resources to reverse. They put sensitive data at risk of leaks or deletion and can taint your business’ reputation.
Most of the attacks mentioned below were not targeted. The victims were attacked simply because there was a vulnerability which hackers could exploit and profit from. It is important to maintain good cybersecurity posture. Even the smallest of measures like having a strong password can protect you from an attack.
1. University of Vermont Medical Center
In October 2020, the University of Vermont Medical Center’s online system was breached by a ransomware attack. The hospital immediately contacted the Vermont National Guard, the FBI, and a security company, Cisco Talos. An employee took a corporate laptop on vacation and opened a personal email from a reputable company that got hacked. After returning and connecting that laptop back to the Medical Center Network, the hackers slowly worked their way through the hospital’s system and one day struck with their attack. The attack downed the phone system as well as staff access to email and medical records causing delayed treatments, appointments, and test results for three weeks. No data was stolen as social security, insurance, and medical records were on the line, but the attack cost the hospital $65 million.
2. Costa Rican Government
The Government of Costa Rica was attacked by ransomware in April 2022 for five days. The hacker managed to get in through the VPN using compromised credentials and stole over one terabyte of data. From there they breached many different ministries of the government and gained access to personal information of the country’s citizens. A state of emergency was declared, and it was estimated that Costa Rica lost $30 million a day.
3. Colonial Pipeline
An oil company that services the southeast US, Colonial Pipeline, faced a ransomware attack in May 2021. The hacker group used an exposed password for a VPN account to get in the system. It is likely the same password was used for an account elsewhere. The hackers stole 100 gigabytes of data from the billing and accounting system in under two hours. The shutdown caused severe delays leading to long lines of people panic-buying gas and a state of emergency declaration. The attack lasted for six days until Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom under the supervision of the FBI. The ransom cost 75 bitcoin or $4.4 million, $2.3 million of which the Department of Justice was able to uncover.
4. City of Baltimore
The city of Baltimore’s government computer system got encrypted for over two weeks in May 2019. The hacker group was scanning for vulnerabilities and happened to find one in the city government’s system. The ransom letter matched the group’s letters from other attacks, leading officials to believe this was not a targeted attack. After notifying the FBI, Baltimore shut down the computer system putting pending home sales, parking tickets, voice mail, email, water bill payment systems, property taxes, and vehicle citations on pause. The ransom asked for three Bitcoins ($24,000) per system or 13 Bitcoins ($102,000) for all systems. It took an estimated $18.2 million to recover from the attack.
5. The UK’s National Health Service (WannaCry)
The WannaCry ransomware attack took place in May 2017 and targeted a vulnerability in outdated Windows Versions. Two months prior, Microsoft identified this weakness and released a patch to protect its users. Those who did not install the patch remained vulnerable and unfortunately got attacked. WannaCry infected over 230,000 computers worldwide including the UK’s National Health Service. Their equipment and computer services were shut down resulting in the closure of their emergency rooms. Many Manufactures were also victim to this attack causing slowdowns in production. This global attack resulted in billions of dollars of damages and could have easily been prevented by downloading the patch. It is important to keep your devices updated to protect yourself from system vulnerabilities.
Preventing Ransomware Attacks
These attacks were very unfortunate and left its victims with millions of dollars’ worth of damages. As tragic as these stories are, it is important to remember that they are just as likely to happen to your business as they are to anyone else. The best thing you can do to protect yourself from a Ransomware Attack is to routinely maintain your cyber security. Read more about ransomware and how you can keep your business safe.