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Cyber Extortion: Protecting Your Business from Digital Blackmail
- The cyber security world has seen a significant increase in cyber-attacks, with 1,876 per enterprise on average in the 2024 Q3, recording a 75% increase from 2023 Q3. In this article, we look at the history of cyber extortion and how this type of crime works. Cyber extortion is a crime where a threat actor steals critical information and demands money or other requirements in exchange for returning it. In the article, we look at the types of cyber extortion and best practices to protect yourself from cyber extortion.
- There have been different types of cyber extortion attacks in the recent past, including doxing extortion, software extortion, data breach extortion, email extortion, among others. There is a process cyber criminals follow, which varies based on techniques and tactics they utilise. Cyber extortion mainly involves cyber attackers gaining unauthorised access to sensitive information, demanding ransom, and threatening victims with exposure of their data publicly if they do not pay.
- Best practices to mitigate the impact of cyber extortion include adopting comprehensive security strategies, conducting regular vulnerability assessments, compliance audits and adopting an incident response plan. Because cyber extortion targets both system weaknesses and human error, training employees on security awareness, conducting simulations through drill exercises, and partnering with an experienced cybersecurity provider like TestingXperts (Tx) can help organizations fortify their defenses.
- Real-world examples of cyber extortion attacks include Orange Is the New Black, where the extortionists demanded $50,000 in exchange for not releasing pre-scheduled episodes, which they still released after receiving the ransom. In other instances, universities and different government organizations have been attacked, and confidential client data has been exposed.
- Preventing cyber extortion entails having a backup of your files, employing anti-malware and firewall protection measures, performing Background check on each employee to avoid digital fraud and training employees on dodging phishing attacks and spear phishing attacks; authentication systems to manage employees' access and obtaining a cyber extortion insurance policy.
- To manage cyber extortion risks, Tx offers different services such as proactive vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, security testing, and compliance audits to identify gaps in security controls that hackers can exploit, and incident response testing to help organizations' readiness in handling cyber extortion attacks.
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