How Cybercriminals Choose Ransomware Targets and Set Ransom Demands

Leaked Playbook or Simply Admission of Error, Dodgers World Series Win

Armand here, RPost’s armadillo product evangelist, deep into my cybersecurity mindset with some (much!) jet lag, after sponsoring Gartner’s ITxpo (the largest gathering of CIOs in the world) in Orlando, then darting off to the Gartner ITxpo in Tokyo with my RPost Japan team, and now flying over the pond to Barcelona to check in with the Gartner ITxpo Europe with my European RPost colleagues (and then to Gartner Dubai and Gartner India in the coming weeks!). I’m learning insights galore – that I aim to share. Stay tuned.

For now, I will leave you with a few thoughts before my sporty side takes over.

1. Leaked playbooks. I speak to many of our customers across many industry sectors. One of our CIO friends in a very large law firm explained one of the latest cybercriminal playbooks. It is quite shocking, by the way. The CIO and our team will be discussing this on a private webinar (that you can register for as a friend of mine and RPost). In that session we will explain one of the criteria that cybercriminals are using to select their targets for ransomware attacks, how they are thwarting disaster recovery plans, and how they are deriving their opening salvo ransom ask. For any General Counsel, CLO, CIO or CISO, this is a must-attend webinar. (REGISTER HERE). Since it is sensitive security content, registration will be approved after we at RPost verify you are a legitimate domain (no Gmail or Hotmail addresses please).
2. Admission of Error. Well, not to get into the New York Yankees painful errors just yet, it occurred to me through conversations with our clients, that while admission of error is always useful, the consequence of the error can depend on your means. What do I mean? Speaking with a global oil company customer, they said if cybercriminals tricked us into mis-sending $50 million, it would not be pleasant but would not even be a blip on the overall cash flow. By contrast, speaking with a title insurance agency, if the closing caused a mis-send of a wire to Nigeria of $500,000, they’d be wiped out. So, whether or not you use RPost PRE-Crime technology to save the day (and it does every day) may depends on your “error” pain tolerance. I recommend use, by the way, as I have a low error pain threshold. 

This mention of the New York Yankee errors are bringing forth my sporty side… Now, even sporty armadillo loath to admit but are willing to admit our errors. This error had a lost opportunity for me – I was about to place a bet in Vegas on the Dodgers but hesitated… 

I have to unfortunately also admit that I was wrong in my World Series prediction. I did have both of my predicted teams in play 😊, however I predicted the Yankees to win it all. I was wrong. The Los Angeles Dodgers have won yet another World Series. They have added it to their trophy cabinet and now have a total of 8 titles. This year they must thank none other than Freddie Freeman for their success. 

The momentum of the series went all to the Dodgers after a walk off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 1, to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead to start off the series. Now, a grand slam is rare, but in this case, very rare. It was the FIRST-ever walk off grand slam in a world series game. It only took 696 games to achieve this record, but it was finally broken. I feel like the series was over after this moment and the Dodgers had already won it all. 

The Dodgers went on a hot streak and won the first three games in style. Winning 6-3 in game one from the walk off grand slam, and 4-2 in games two and three. The Yankees looked defeated in New York as it was looking like they would get swept in the World Series. 

I have to say, I was thinking that the Yankees were in the same place that the Red Sox were in – exactly 20 years ago -- in that magical 2004 series when I was a peewee armadillo; the Red Sox were down 3 games to zero against the Yankees and came back to win it… could the Yankees pull off Red Sox magic and come back?

This looked like it could happen as out of nowhere the Yankees won game four 11-4. This was a blowout win that was not expected at all from the Yankees as they never looked like a real threat throughout the series. 

Along with the first game of the series, game five brought the BOOM! It was such an exciting game; I found myself on the tip of my tiny armadillo stool. I had a lot of doubt in the Dodgers as the Yankees came out strong off the bat (literally), taking a 5-0 early lead.

Maybe the Yankees could come back…

It was the 5th game, 5th inning, when the Dodgers decided to play ball. They scored all 5 runs while having 2 outs (thanks to a Yankees error). My little armadillo jaw dropped to the ground. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The game quickly shifted in favor of the Dodgers, but the Yankees weren’t losing hope. The very next inning, the Yankees scored a run to retake the lead. The Dodgers spoiled their plans once again. There was a lot of suspense heading into the bottom of the ninth inning as the Yankees were down to their final outs. They couldn’t do anything, and the Dodgers won the World Series. 

I have many New York friends, so I won’t mention the errors; I will say, however, the Yankees errors in the final game were (in retrospect) as painful as mis-sending $50 million to cybercriminal accounts; perhaps more painful.

Unfortunately, RPost technology cannot help win baseball games; but it can still save the day when it comes to combating cybercrime.

Contact RPost to learn more.

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