Ransomware Readiness: How SMBs Can Prepare for the Rising Threat of Ransomware-as-a-Service, Initial Access Brokers, and Credential Theft

Ransomware continues to be one of the top cyber threats faced by businesses, and one that remains profitable for adversaries. The modern ransomware landscape relies on a criminal “gig” economy to enable and scale cyberattacks.

In this report we dig into new research from eSentire’s Threat Response Unit (TRU) that analyzes the trends our team has observed on the impact of these services including malware obfuscation/encryption, certificates, malware-as-a-service, credentials, footholds within networks and Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), such as Lockbit.

New observations shared in this report reveal:

• These modern ransomware attacks disproportionately impact and target small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
• Why the Lockbit Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) threat is more acute for SMBs and can be more challenging to defend against.
• How Initial Access Broker (IAB) auctions are actively marketing the revenue, industry, country, and employee count for the targeted organizations.
• Why information stealing malware is a substantial source of user credentials, including session tokens for bypassing MFA, and how credentials are made widely available across the Dark Web.
• How Initial Access Brokers are a key contributor to the underground ransomware marketplace and the correlation between user credential exposure and the ransomware victims.
• Recommendations from TRU on how your organization can anticipate, withstand, and recover from the most sophisticated ransomware attacks.

Download our ransomware report to inform your cybersecurity strategies, reduce cyber risk, and how to prepare for a ransomware attack. You’ll also learn how eSentire Dark Web Monitoring service extends visibility beyond your on-premises and cloud environments to detect compromised user credentials, corporate sensitive data, and early indicators of potential cyber threats to protect your brand, executive team, and employees.