South Island businesses may be paying an early price for the United States’ recent successes against ransomware attackers. Evidence is emerging that ransomware criminals may be switching attacks to “soft targets” including New Zealand and Australian firms after President Biden laid down the law with Russia, experts say. A ransomware group known as Lockbit 2.0 claims to have attacked three small and mid-sized New Zealand firms in recent weeks. The Australian Cyber Security Centre warned last week that there had been an increase in ransomware attacks against Australian organisations using LockBit 2.0 ransomware, starting in July. “We know from previous attacks that small third-party suppliers are often the weak link attackers use to get to the larger companies,” he said.

Source: Stuff August 11, 2021 17:00 UTC