Zscaler ThreatLabz, a cybersecurity company, has published itsannual ransomware report, which includes a whopping $75 million paid out by a Fortune 50 company to ransomware gang Dark Angels. ThreatLabz has called the payout “unprecedented”.
According to ThreatLabz, $75 million is the largest publicly known payout from any company. The previous “record holder” was insurance company CNA, which paid a group – Evil Corp – $40 million.
More recently, they’ve taken to hit tech, industrial, and telecommunication companies.
Dark Angels run “Dunghill Leak” on thedeep web. If the ransom isn’t paid, the stolen data will be leaked onto the site.
Dark Angels tend to steal hundreds of terabytes of data, casting a wide net over the victim. According to the report, they only go after one large company at a time, which is dubbed “Big Game Hunting”.
This happens when Dark Angels –or any gang– encrypts a company’s data on the disk, making it nearly impossible to crack back open. Unless theransomis paid or the software is removed in some capacity, recovering the data is incredibly difficult.
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Voice cloningis already a concern, with advertising giant WPP already beinghit this year. Generative AI apps like MyVocal make this incredibly easy to set up and reproduce.
Hyppönen’s June 10 talk at the RSA conference ended with the cybersecurity legend confirming that some companies are recovering by swapping toiPadsor Chromebooks.
He also ended that talk by saying companies cannot hide and need to be proactive about protecting data from criminals.
Joel Loynds was Dexerto’s Deputy Tech Editor in the UK team. He has been writing about tech & games for over a decade, specializing in PCs, hardware, and handhelds such as the Steam Deck. He also has bylines at Scan, WePC, PCGuide, Eurogamer, Digital Foundry and Metro UK.
