Over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in cyberattacks using malware to target the systems of critical infrastructure such as utility companies, government agencies and organizations that provide services and products that we rely on daily. According to a report from the cybersecurity firm CheckPoint Software, in the first half of this year, there was a 102 percent increase in these types of attacks compared to 2020. "In years past, a lot of internet attacks were done for fun, but these days they are all for profit," said Guofei Gu, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. "The most popular, and profitable, type that we see nowadays is ransomware." Ransomware is an advanced type of malware that installs itself onto a user's machine or device undetected, encrypts their data files, rendering them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. But even if the ransom is paid, the decryption process to get the files back to normal is a slow one. "These groups will put several locks on the data," said Dilma Da Silva, professor and holder of the Ford Motor Company Design Professorship in the department. "While you may be able to get through them all with the key that they give you, it is going to take the computer a long time to get through them all. And there's always a possibility they will leave an extra hack behind for themselves or to sell to other cybercriminal groups." Cybercrime is a growing business. The FBI reported that in 2020, despite most of the country being focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, they received a record number of complaints about cybercrimes, which cost Americans about $4.2 billion in losses. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that by 2025, that number could grow to $10.5 trillion per year worldwide. Read more...
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