The Norwalk Hour

Firm details ransomware attacks

- By Alexander Soule Includes prior reporting by Mary Katherine Wildeman and Peter Yankowski. Alex.Soule@scni.com; @casoulman

A new study by a Norwalk informatio­n technology vendor suggests only three of every 100 organizati­ons pay off the hackers that seize control of their systems in “ransomware” attacks — with the rest choosing to incur significan­t headaches and expense to recover data, or rebuild otherwise a portion or all of a targeted IT system from scratch.

Datto released survey results on Tuesday covering how small- and midsize businesses deal with the threats of ransomware, email “phishing” and other methods to infiltrate their systems. The company received about 3,000 responses from survey participan­ts in the United States and seven other countries.

Datto provides data backup and security services, with offices in Norwalk and Miami after being acquired for $6.2 billion last year by Kaseya which is based there. Kayesa itself was the target of a ransomware attack in 2021.

Ransomware attacks involve hackers seizing exclusive access to computer systems or data, and threatenin­g to erase them permanentl­y unless paid a ransom to restore access. In the early weeks of 2023, victims reporting ransomware attacks have included a Toronto children’s hospital, the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail, and a Norway company whose software is used to manage schedules for more than 1,000 ships globally.

Ransomware attacks impacted 13 percent of smaller businesses in 2022, including attacks on companies that provide them informatio­n technology services that cascaded into their own operations.

More than half of respondent­s indicated recovering from a ransomware attack would have a significan­t impact, while another 17 percent fear an “extreme” impact with a high difficulty of recovery. Nearly seven of every 10 businesses surveyed by Datto have cyber insurance policies in place, with a third of those that do not considerin­g getting coverage this year.

Connecticu­t ransomware victims the past few years include the company which manages the call center operations of Access Health CT; the Hartford Public Schools which saw its bus scheduling system attacked on the first day of school in 2020 as normal classes resumed during the COVID-19 pandemic; and public school systems in New Haven the prior year.

If vexing for small businesses and nonprofits that lack the expertise and resources to respond to a ransomware attack, such attacks remain a major concern as hackers may hone in on critical infrastruc­ture in the hunt for a big payoff.

In 2021, Connecticu­t and other Northeast states were affected by a $4.4 million ransomware attack on the operator of the Colonial Pipeline, though much of the ransom was subsequent­ly recovered as the U.S. Department of Justice seized cryptocurr­ency accounts linked to the perpetrato­rs.

And only last week, thousands of U.S. flights were canceled after contractor­s errantly compromise­d software code in a key system, providing a fresh reminder of the need for strong cyber defenses and backup systems.

Phishing remains the most prevalent hack to infiltrate business systems, according to the Datto survey, with 32 percent of respondent­s indicating they had detected such attempts. Close behind ransomware were computer viruses, then scams linked to COVID-19, with 21 percent of survey participan­ts stating employees received fraudulent emails related to COVID.

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