If you grew up in a large family, you know the sensation. Lots of aunts and uncles and thousands of cousins you saw on a limited basis, like every other year or so at a family reunion somewhere. Some of those kids were really weird, and they seem to come by it pretty naturally, since Uncle Fred and Aunt Eunice popped out of the RV with a gin and tonic in one hand and a fistful of political conspiracy theories in the other. Who knew Tolstoy was the second gun on the grassy knoll?
Big families are like that. Lots of individual differences, but one connecting thread. Family. As it turns out, ransomware has some of the same characteristics. Lots of individual differences, but the intention to hold your data hostage until you pay is the family name and the family game.
The Strange Cousins From Ukraine
If you thought WannaCry was bad, its cousin XData will make you wanna fall to the ground in a hissy fit of epic proportions, complete with rending of garments and gnashing of teeth. Fortunately, according to a recent Wired report, it has so far been isolated to Ukraine. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, at least in the ransomware family, it is among the more sophisticated of the cousins, traveling in a text file and deploying more quietly than others, though with equally devastating effect.
You Can’t Pick Your Family
But you can move away and not let them know your forwarding address. And with the threat of ransomware growing every day, you can call ICS and we’ll look after you like family. Because this is our house. Except for the RV. Fred picked that up at a garage sale. He’s a strange bird.
