This article has been indexed from Security Boulevard
Ransomware is an epidemic that adversely affects the lives of both individuals and large companies, where criminals demand payments to release infected digital assets.
In the wake of the ransomware success, Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is being offered as a franchise model that allows people without programming skills to become active attackers and take part in the ransomware economy. This is a way of democratizing crime, giving ordinary people and smaller players an easier way into the criminal market, while reducing the risk of exposure for the ones on top of the value chain. For instance, a dissatisfied employee might decide to partner up with a RaaS developer to effectively infect an organization from the inside and then splitting the profit.
Wait a minute, this sounds like SaaS (Software as a Service) with the exception of mal-intent and ‘R’ prefix instead of ‘S’ ?
Yes, these organized cybercrime groups have been known to offer 24/7 technical support, subscriptions, quality assurance, affiliate schemes, and online forums just like legitimate SaaS companies. They know that offering a quality service to their (admittedly) criminally-minded clients will help both sides of the venture to become wealthy at the expense of victimized individuals or organizations that they prey upon.
What led to the inception of RaaS ?
The first ransomware, known as AIDS (Aids Info Disk or PC Cyborg Trojan), was observed in the wild already in 1989, spreading through the exchange of floppy disks. Following AIDS ransomware, number of ransomware families were quite low for more than two decades, especially the ones with sophisticated destructive capabilities. However, this all changed with the advent of stronger encryption schemes in the ransomware code and especially the availability of cryptocurrency as a payment method which is fairly difficult to track by law enforcement. In the wake of the ransomware success, ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) has become an entry point for criminals with little programming skills to participate and earn money from ransomware.
Is there an underpinning supply-chain that benefits a RaaS provider?
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Read the original article: Connecting RaaS, REvil, Kaseya and your security posture
