The ransomware landscape has evolved considerably since WannaCry dramatically drove home the potential severity of the threat five years ago on May 12. What has changed somewhat less over the same period is enterprise preparedness in the face of ransomware attacks. Ransomware emerged and has remained entrenched as one of the most difficult security issues for organizations across sectors in the past few years. WannaCry itself, while nowhere near as widespread as it was initially, remains a potent threat and even figured in some vendor lists of top malware threats as recently as last November. By most accounts, enterprise organizations have gotten better at remediating vulnerabilities and updating obsolete and outdated software. Even so, the vulnerable version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol that WannaCry used to spread like wildfire remains in widespread use across organizations and regions. Most attacks against the SMB protocol still attempt to exploit EternalBlue, the exploit that was used in the WannaCry attacks. Patching and vulnerability management programs continue to pose challenges, as do practices such as threat detection, remediation, and response.
Read more : 5 Years That Altered the Ransomware Landscape.
