So you paid a ransom demand…and now the decryptor doesn’t work

September 11, 2024 – Published on The Register

For C-suite execs and security leaders, discovering your organization has been breached by network intruders, your critical systems locked up, and your data stolen, and then receiving a ransom demand, is probably the worst day of your professional life.

But it can get even worse, as some execs who had been infected with Hazard ransomware recently found out. After paying the ransom in exchange for a decryptor to restore the encrypted files, the decryptor did not work.

Coming to the conclusion that the best way out of a ransomware situation is to pay the extortionists – whether for concerns about customers’ and employees’ data privacy, or to bring business operations back online, or to minimize reputational damage, or because there just weren’t any backups (oops) – can be a pretty painful decision in itself.

But then to pay the criminals and still not be able to recover the files? That’s excruciating.

“Ransomware as a whole is extremely stressful for the victim,” said Mark Lance, ransomware negotiator with GuidePoint Security. “Now in this circumstance, specifically, where they’ve made the payment and the decryption tools don’t work,” the stress levels ratcheted up several notches.

Read More HERE.