Tag Archive for: fileless

Fileless, Double Extortion, AI and More — Virtualization Review

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News

Ransomware in 2024: Fileless, Double Extortion, AI and More

Ransomware in 2024 will be much like ransomware in 2023 except for a few new twists that organizations should be aware of.

Along with “traditional” ransomware attacks, the threat actors are continually upgrading their game with new approaches, technology and techniques.

To help organizations get a handle on the primary security threat of our times, experts Dave Kawula and John O’Neill Sr. recently presented an online summit titled “2024 Ransomware Outlook,” which is now available for on-demand replay.

Relatively new ransomware techniques such as double extortion, Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), fileless ransomware, Living-off-the-Land (LotL) attacks and more were discussed by Kawula, managing principal consultant at TriCon Elite Consulting, and O’Neill Sr., chief technologist at AWS Solutions. Both are on the front lines of the cybersecurity wars, continually helping organizations protect themselves or recover from attacks.

Here’s a summary of their thoughts on a couple ransomware concerns in 2024.

Double Extortion
This technique is a more complex and aggressive form of cyberattack compared to traditional ransomware. In a double extortion attack, cybercriminals not only encrypt the victim’s data, rendering it inaccessible, but also steal sensitive information before encrypting it.


Double Extortion </figcaption> </figure></div>
[Click on image for larger view.] Double Extortion

Key aspects of this technique include:

  • Data Encryption and Theft: The first step involves infiltrating a victim’s network and encrypting crucial data. Simultaneously, the attackers exfiltrate, or steal, sensitive data from the victim.
  • Dual Threat: Victims face two threats — the encryption of their data and the potential leak of their stolen information. This double threat significantly increases the pressure on the victim to pay the ransom.
  • Ransom Demands: The attackers demand a ransom payment to decrypt the stolen data….

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Fileless Ransomware: Powershell Netwalker

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Malicious PyPI packages drop ransomware, fileless malware

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In this Help Net Security video, Ax Sharma, Senior Security Researcher at Sonatype, discusses newly found PyPI packages that pack ransomware, and another package that appears to be safe but silently drops fileless malware to mine cryptocurrency (Monero) on the infected system – all while evading detection.

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What is a Fileless Cyberattack?

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Cybercrime
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime
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Governance & Risk Management

The Threat that Directly Loads Malicious Code into Memory

Marc Laliberte

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January 5, 2022    

What is a Fileless Cyberattack?

Cyber threat actors are constantly developing more and more sophisticated techniques to infect systems. The best-known method is using files that contain and inject malware, sent through systems such as email or via web downloads. However, in recent years the industry has seen a sharp rise in a much more complex form of attack – fileless malware. But what exactly is it?

See Also: Frost & Sullivan Executive Brief: Beyond The Cloud


Instead of installing a malicious application on the victim’s hard drive like traditional malware, fileless malware is a threat that directly loads malicious code into memory. It tends to use two entry vectors: either it exploits an existing vulnerability in a program the victim uses or it gets in through a file that’s not installed as such, like a script. Fileless malware often injects its code into the memory of existing programs, which makes it very difficult for conventional antivirus solutions to detect.


If this malware has already managed to get in, EDR solutions enable organizations to reduce detection and response time and therefore recovery time thanks to the post-execution functionalities. 

Although these techniques are not that new, there has been exponential growth in cases since 2016 (in fact,…

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