Both public and private sector organizations (as well as policy makers) have increased their focus on combating ransomware over the past several months.
Most notable, two major initiatives just marked their one-year anniversary: The Executive Order 14028 Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Ransomware Task Force report, which combined the thought leadership of cyber pros in business and government and provided a slew of recommendations to stop the threats.

While both initiatives have had some successes—including bringing the topic deeper into the public sphere making it one something we can and do talk about—ransomware continues to thrive. In fact, ransomware payments increased 70 percent to $600M in 2021 from last year’s levels.

In this episode, my cohost Nick Bradley and I sit down with two informed voices focused on combating ransomware: Roya Gordon,  OT security thought leader with Nozomi Networks, and John Dwyer, head of X-Force threat research.

Together, we’ll examine how ransomware is evolving (and even expanding) even while the security industry redoubles efforts to try to stop it. Topics include the rise of initial access brokers and the effect they have on ransomware delivery; shrewd relationship building among criminal gangs; and emergence of new threat actor groups this year.

We’ll also look at the proliferation of ransomware group rebranding—Conti as this week’s headline leader, reportedly shutting down operations while continuing their attack on Costa Rica, according to Bleeping Computer. As seems the case with all rebranding, the name may be a thing of the past but the operations go on.

The show will air on Tuesday, May 31 at 11 am ET U.S. There will also be a live QA session concurrent with the show where you can ask questions of our tech genius guests, so put your thinking cap on and login!

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