Generally speaking (and in my professional experience) that is the vector the crypto virus is introduced. It's much easier for an attacker to send an email to every possible email address at an organization with a malicious link than to actually try to infiltrate the firewall, servers, etc...

Stogie1020 wrote:

I would agree. And don’t download porn or your work computer.

HockeyDad wrote:

This "hack" was not a hack... It was a stupid employee who clicked on a "free gift card" email or a "Your package is undeliverable" email and then clicked the link and infected him/her/pronoun-of-choice with a crypto virus variant. The virus encrypts your machine and any other machines it has permissions to access, and only de-crypts when you pay thousands of dollars in bitcoin. My guess is they paid. You don't have to pay if you have good backups, but my guess is that they didn't, or didn't have the time to wipe and re-install from backups.

Stogie1020 wrote:

three ring binder

pencil

eraser

frankj1 wrote:

three ring binder

pencil

eraser

frankj1 wrote:

Gene, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not hard. As the CEO was ordering enter on the 5 million dollar Bitcoin transfer, I hope the IT director was laughing at all the times the CEO said upgrades were too expensive.

Stogie1020 wrote:

There is always more to the story and I would not be at all surprised if what you described.

Gene363 wrote:

Looks like DarkSide (the ransomware-as-a-service provider) actually focused their efforts on companies likely to be able to pay.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/a-closer-look-at-the-darkside-ransomware-gang/ 

https://www.intel471.com/blog/darkside-ransomware-colonial-pipeline-attack 

Stogie1020 wrote: