Ransomware attacks: the fastest growing, most lucrative of cyber crimes

Barely a week passes without another major “ransomware” attack. Our cover story looks at this burgeoning cyber crime.

When the dictionary boffins sit down to choose their words of the year for 2021 you can bet ransomware will be right up there. Barely a week passes without a new story of hackers infiltrating business computer systems, launching malware that locks the victim’s data, then demanding payment to release it. As Cameron Stewart reports, more than 459 Australian entities (and possibly many more who won’t report it) have been hit in the past year, costing $1.4 billion, amid concerns that vital services such as hospitals and health providers are increasingly being targeted.

In the US, ransomware gangs are striking every eight minutes; one recent target was Colonial Pipeline, a vital fuel supplier. As we went to press, an attack on a Florida-based international technology firm, affecting hundreds of businesses globally, was being labelled the biggest ransomware strike on record. The way things are going, it probably won’t be the largest for long.