The Insider Threat: How Everest Ransomware Is Recruiting Your Employees
Since its emergence in December 2020, Everest has claimed responsibility for breaching more than 200 organizations across five years of operations. Seventy-three percent of those victims are located in the United States. But the group's evolution from traditional ransomware operator to a hybrid model combining direct extortion with initial access brokerage makes it particularly dangerous for large enterprises.
The numbers tell a grim story. According to threat intelligence from the Department of Health and Human Services, Everest has conducted at least 20 confirmed attacks on healthcare organizations between April 2021 and July 2024, with medical imaging providers disproportionately represented among the victims.
The Phone Call That Changed Everything: Inside the $1 Million Ransomware Operation Targeting Enterprise America
The operation, led by the notorious ShinyHunters cybercrime syndicate in collaboration with Scattered Spider and remnants of the Lapsus$ group, has compromised at least 39 companies across multiple industries in recent months.
Among the victims are household names. The financial toll is staggering. According to communications intercepted by security researchers monitoring underground forums, the group's leader, operating under the alias ShinyCorp, is selling stolen corporate datasets for upwards of $1 million per company.
When Anubis Ransomware Chooses Destruction Over Profit: A New Calculus for Enterprise Security
The ransomware economy has operated on a simple premise for the better part of two decades: attackers encrypt corporate data, victims pay for the decryption key, and business eventually resumes. That implicit contract, as distasteful as it may be, has at least offered organizations a path to recovery. But a new player in the ransomware landscape is upending that calculus entirely, and chief information security officers at major enterprises should take notice.
Anubis, a ransomware operation that surfaced in December 2024, has introduced what security researchers are calling a dual-threat capability. The malware not only encrypts files using sophisticated cryptographic methods but also includes an optional wiper function that permanently erases data, reducing file contents to zero bytes while leaving filenames intact as hollow shells. Even if a victim pays the ransom, recovery becomes impossible.
Play Ransomware Group Targets Enterprise Infrastructure with Surgical Precision
As ransomware continues to evolve from opportunistic crime to targeted operations against high-value entities, security leaders face a sobering reality: the threat actors are professional, persistent, and continuously improving their craft. The question for enterprise security programs is no longer whether they could be compromised, but whether they can detect and respond to a compromise before irreversible damage occurs.
The Automation Problem: Why Security Teams Are Burning Out Despite Heavy Investment
Here's what I see happening: Security teams buy automation platforms, then try to force their operations into generic, out-of-the-box playbooks that look good in demos but fall apart in real incidents. The result? Analysts ignore the automation and go back to doing things manually.