In one of our recent blogs, we discussed how cryptovirological operators are resorting to low-profile attacks to make the most out of their activities. A ransomware attack on a local furniture store in Vermont has once again confirmed this newly developed trend among ransomware operators.
According to the store’s owner, they never suffered a cyber attack in two decades of their operations. The store management came to know about the attack after the employees couldn’t access the sales information stored on the targeted computer. They immediately contacted their IT guy to find out the problem with the system. At first, the manager couldn’t understand when IT guy told him that the system had been affected by a ransomware attack.
It shows that a lot of people still don’t know about the cyber threat that involves ransom payment. Nevertheless, the store decided against paying the attackers and commenced their own ransomware removal measures. Customer names, addresses and contact details from last 10 years got compromised in the attack. Fortunately, banking cards details remained safe from the cryptovirological activity of the ransomware.
Since the store is removing the ransomware only with the help of its local IT guy, therefore it hasn’t succeeded in restoring the complete system yet. It looks like the furniture store has lost some of its data forever.
With the incidents like these, the benefits of going for low-profile ransomware assaults become quite apparent. Digital fronts of local brick and mortar stores are easier to target since no layered firewalls and anti-ransomware software applications protect them. In addition, the staffer at local ventures doesn’t have adequate information regarding the social engineering tactics used by cryptovirological operators. Lastly, such stores are not aware of third-party ransomware removal services. Therefore, they are more inclined to pay the attackers to get back their data.
