EP45 VirusTotal Insights on Ransomware Business and Technology

Cloud Security Podcast by Google

Guests:

• Vlad Stolyarov, Security Engineer @ Threat Analysis Group (TAG)
• Vicente Diaz, Threat Intelligence Strategist @ VirusTotal

Topics:

• Why GandCrab / REvil was the most popular ransomware family in 2020?
• What is ransomware as a service?
• Is every scary article about ransomware essentially marketing for the criminals?
• Some ransomware payoffs are huge, how do you think they spend the money?
• How else do they profit off stolen data apart from double extortion schemes? Are there triple extortion schemes?
• What is the concept of a “trusted brand in ransomware”, is it better for clients because they will return the data?
• Why did non-Windows ransomware fail as a business?
• Do we expect 0day exploits to become more popular in ransomware?
• Based on this research, what is the key reason for ransomware’s wild success?

Resources:

• “Ransomware in a Global Context” report
• “Malware Hunting with VirusTotal” (ep30)
• Google TAG blog
• NoMoreRansom Org
• “Cybereason: 80% of orgs that paid the ransom were hit again”
• Google Cybersecurity Action Team Threat Horizons Report (full, brief)