Initially, an attacker will utilize social engineering to gather information about the potential victim(s).
An attacker uses phishing emails to target employees. These phishing emails are hard to detect, because they’re created to look like they come from a trustworthy sender, but link to or contain malicious content.
It only takes one click. Once a malicious file or link is opened, the attacker runs exploits on the targeted network and installs malware.
Once they’re in the system, attackers can move laterally to other systems and accounts in order to gain more leverage: whether that’s higher permissions, more data, or greater access to systems.
After gaining a foothold, the attackers can continue to carry out their objectives which may include data exfiltration.
The impact of ransomware can be overwhelming for businesses. Sensitive data can be taken hostage and organizations can be locked out of their business critical systems. Either way, the financial, reputational, and regulatory impact is significant, even catastrophic.
See Tessian Threat Intelligence