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Ransomware attacks and other cybersecurity threats are hitting companies across the federal supply chain, leaving businesses and government agencies vulnerable to major data breaches and financial losses. In this episode of "Security Clearance Insecurity," host Lyndy Kyzer speaks with GroupSense CEO, Kurtis Minder, about the latest cyber threats and best practices for protecting against them.

Join our partner NTT Data Services for their upcoming webinar panel, "The Evolving Threat of Ransomware," this March 29. GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder will join industry experts to talk about the rapidly changing world of ransomware threats. The panelists will dissect modern ransomware attacks that jeopardize businesses across various sectors. Register here to save your spot.

Discover how a new generation of cybercriminals and their ransomware-as-a-service schemes are putting SME/SMBs in the crosshairs, launching the effectiveness and volume of ransomware to unprecedented heights. Learn how these cunning operators exploit the primal fears of data loss and exposure to create a sense of urgency, driving their victims to act impulsively.

Ransomware operators prey on the fear of data loss which sparks emotions that drive their targets to react right away. The fear of embarrassment and their sensitive data being exposed to the world increases the stakes of every ransomware attack.

Know the panelists:
Haroon Malik: Director – NTT Data
Kurtis Minder: CEO - GroupSense
Morgan Wright: Chief Security Advisor - SentinelOne
Brian Stockbrugger: Sr. Cloud Security Architect - Microsoft
Mike Landeck: Director of Security Services - NTT DATA Services
Salvatore Perlangeli: Heart of Threat Defense Practice - NTT DATA Italia

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured in the Tuesday, March 14 issue of the Axios Codebook Newsletter. The "1 big thing" section is focused on the increasing threat posed by ransomware gangs and their extreme blackmail tactics. These cyber criminals have been fine-tuning their strategies to maximize their profits and inflict more damage on their victims. Ransomware attacks involve the use of malware that encrypts a victim's files, making them inaccessible until a ransom is paid. The attackers typically demand payment in cryptocurrency, making it difficult to track the money and identify the criminals.

Ransomware gangs have evolved their tactics, not only encrypting victims' files but also stealing sensitive data before locking it down. This technique is called "double extortion," where the criminals threaten to publish or sell the data if the ransom is not paid. The gangs are also targeting larger organizations and demanding higher ransoms, with some demanding payments of up to $50 million.

The section also highlights Kurtis' contributions to the fight against ransomware. He has been a vocal advocate for proactive measures to prevent ransomware attacks, including monitoring networks for signs of an attack and training employees to recognize phishing and social engineering tactics commonly used by ransomware gangs. For many organizations, these measures can prevent cyber attacks and ransomware attacks.

Kurtis' expertise in ransomware has led him to create a "Ransomware Task Force" that includes experts from both the public and private sectors. The task force's goal is to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat ransomware, including prevention, response, and recovery measures. The task force has already published a report with recommendations for improving ransomware defenses, and Kurtis has been actively promoting these recommendations to policymakers and business leaders. Check out the full newsletter here.

At first glance, Biden’s recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy appears comprehensive and forward-thinking. It focuses on a number of areas such as strengthening the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), developing new technologies to detect threats, and increasing international cooperation to fight transnational cybercrime. However, the strategic initiatives laid out in the document are not funded, and in many cases, are not possible without fundamental changes to organizations and their systems. In this blog, we will focus on strategic initiatives 1.4, 2.2, 2.3, and 3.3.

Cybercriminals are opportunistic by nature. Repeatable methods like ransomware and business email compromise (BEC) attacks are a quick and easy way for criminals to make money. Fortunately, there are steps your organization can take to prevent these attacks from happening that focus on simple, proactive methods of cybersecurity. Download our guide to get actionable advice today.

Last week, GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on the BBC 4 news program You and Yours. The presenter, Winifred Robinson, spoke about the effect of the Royal Mail ransomware attack with UK citizens and discussed the severity of the attack with Kurtis.

The Russo-Ukrainian War: A Year in Review
One year after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we are providing this report summarizing what we have learned while observing the cyber dynamics of this latest stage in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

While experts expected Russia to unleash its full arsenal of cyber capabilities, much of the publicly-known cyber activity associated with the war has come from hacktivist activity among ideologically-motivated actors who have taken the side of Russia or Ukraine. 

The report summarizes what we have learned in the past year, highlights the evolution of pro-Russian hacktivism as a significant factor in the cyber realm and provides recommendations for all organizations to consider as this conflict wages on. 

Cybersecurity isn't just for big business. Organizations of all sizes, shapes, and industries can fall prey to cyberattacks. CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on the "C-Suite Blueprint" podcast to talk about the evolution of cybersecurity since Kurtis entered the industry and the things that executives should take seriously when it comes to cybersecurity.

Ransomware gangs have increasingly focused their attacks on the K-12 education sector, even though most school districts do not pay the ransom. But how long will that last? GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured in a recent TechTarget article exploring the trend of ransomware attacks on education institutions. 

This week, GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured in Help Net Security's video series. In the video, Kurtis reviews the proposed changes to the US national cybersecurity strategy. In the forthcoming strategy, President Biden recommends a more offensive cybersecurity posture, stating that the US will proactively attack threat actors. Kurtis believes that these changes, while "exciting", are not as effective as a defensive cybersecurity strategy. Watch the full video and check out the article here. 

Standalone Service Offering Enables Enterprises to Proactively Protect Executives, Aiming to Shrink Overall Attack Surfaces

ARLINGTON, Va. – January 31, 2023 – GroupSense, a digital risk protection services (DRPS) company, today announced an individualized VIP Monitoring service. The new service assesses and monitors high-profile individuals, executive identities, and their extended personal networks to detect exposure and threats, helping to proactively prevent identity theft, fraud, ransomware and other cyber-attacks.

Ransomware attacks plagued 14 of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors over the last several years. Cyber criminals are well aware of the emergencies that are caused by a shutdown of critical infrastructure organizations, and they know ransoms will be paid to get operations up and running again. Ransomware attacks represent 28% of the attacks on critical infrastructure, and attacks are on the rise throughout the world in 2022. 

This week, GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on the first episode of the "When Leaders Talk" podcast. The new podcast focuses on success stories, failures, and what is needed to be a good leader. Host Stefano Calvetti pulls on his years in the Italian navy to get down to what makes certain leaders impactful. 

CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on an episode of the "Where Humanity Meets Technology," podcast with host Maurice Hamilton. During the episode, "The Ransomware Economy & Prevention," Kurtis and Maurice cover threat actor profiling, the ransomware economy, and mitigation strategies for organizations to employ. 

Throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the pro-Russian hacktivist group Killnet has captured the attention of cybersecurity experts. Killnet originally began as a DDoS botnet service. In January 2022, a threat actor posted an advertisement for the Killnet botnet in Duplikat, a dark web forum for carding, botnets, and other illegal activities. According to the ad, the botnet allowed users to direct traffic without the target’s knowledge. It also claimed that the botnet uses the latest WEB3 technology and that the data is stored throughout the Blockchain. Since January, the nationalist group has targeted pro-Ukrainian countries and organizations in a slew of attacks and experienced organizational shake-up after their leader left. 

Third-party and supply chain attacks have plagued organizations for years, and the attacks keep on coming. These attacks happen when threat actors gain access to your organization’s systems through a third-party, such as a supplier or vendor. Just a few weeks ago, we saw a third-party cyber attack on LastPass that affected GoTo, a remote access and collaboration organization. As a security-focused organization, it may have surprised many that they were impacted, but third-party attacks don’t discriminate.

Cyber criminals have a longstanding reputation of being loners who work out of their mom's basement with hoodies on, but cyber analysts know this isn't the case. Over the last decade, cyber experts have observed an uptick of cyber crime-as-a-service, in which criminals operate in larger, business-like crime units. But what if cyber criminals have a personality profile that organizations can look out for?

Report Notes Digital Risk Protection Services Market is Driven by Increasing Need to Have Visibility Into External-facing Assets to Help Prioritize Mitigation and Remediation Efforts

ARLINGTON, Va. – December 13, 2022 – GroupSense, a digital risk protection services (DRPS) company, today announced that Gartner, a company that delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams, has recognized the company as a Sample Vendor in the 2022 Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Security report. This specific report aims to track some of the more impactful emerging technologies and trends driving innovation in the security market, including DRPS. 

Our nation’s critical infrastructure is vital to our day-to-day lives. Encompassing 16 sectors, critical infrastructure spans transportation, manufacturing, utilities, and more. When we think of threats to infrastructure, natural disasters immediately come to mind, but cybersecurity incidents have the same potential for destruction, including interrupting manufacturing, supply chain availability, and other vital functions. Manufacturing currently contributes $2.7 trillion to the US economy, contributing heavily to GDP (gross domestic product), job growth, and more. Manufacturers are one of the main user groups of ICS (industrial control systems) and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) technologies.

The GroupSense team is preparing for the inevitable increase in attacks during the holiday season along with the threat actors perpetrating the attacks. This year, CEO Kurtis Minder spoke with Politico's John Sakellariadis about threat actors playing the Grinch in the Politico cybersecurity newsletter.

Partnership Expands the Reach of Digital Risk Protection and Intelligence Services to the Legal and Corporate Sectors

During the midterm elections, national news was seemingly quiet about election interference from foreign powers, but that doesn’t mean there were no incidents. Election interference, especially the cyber variety, doesn’t always come on the day of the election. Whether counties or localities suffered DDoS attacks, wi-fi outages, or other cybersecurity attacks, it can all be chalked up to election interference. Here are a few of the incidents that GroupSense analysts were tracking during last Tuesday's election monitoring.

GroupSense CEO and chief ransomware negotiator Kurtis Minder was featured on the Hacking Humans podcast. During the episode, Kurtis speaks with host Dan Bittner about how legislation leaves small businesses out of the discussion of ransomware response. 

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder will be presenting to the Brick Church Men's Association in New York City this November 16 as part of their breakfast series. During the session, Kurtis will talk about preventing ransomware attacks and improving cybersecurity at the personal and organizational levels.

With threats coming from APTs, state-sponsored actors, hacktivists, and cyber criminals, critical infrastructure organizations need to be prepared to defend their assets from all angles. In this report, GroupSense covers the top threats that critical infrastructure agencies are facing and recommended mitigations.

On October 31, CEO Kurtis Minder was honored to present on the panel, "Hitting the Moving Target: cyber, data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI) compliance and governance," at this year's International Bar Association Annual Conference in Miami, FL. 

October has been a busy month for GroupSense. During three speaking opportunities including the Trellix Cybersecurity Summit, NVTC’s Capital Cyber Summit, and the Wisconsin Governor’s Cybersecurity Summit, Kurtis Minder has one important takeaway for employees of your organization: Just. Stop. Clicking. Just stop! 

Modern warfare isn't just fought with boots on the ground. Throughout Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there have been volleys of cyber attacks designed to make each side weaker. As different countries declare allegiances, state agencies and other critical infrastructure organizations are in the crossfire. GroupSense analysts have spent the duration of the invasion closely monitoring the changing cyber landscape.

Training Service Prepares Ransomware Response Team for Successful Threat Actor Engagement to Mitigate Damage, Protect Brand Reputation, Anticipate Emerging Threats and More

This October, GroupSense is celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM). As a CSAM champion, it’s our duty to pass on lessons learned and practical advice that will make you and your organization more secure. This year, Stay Safe Online, CISA, and CSAM champions are exploring four key behaviors: 

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder is honored to participate in the panel, "Cyber Hacking: Stories from the Front Line," at the NVTC Capital Cybersecurity Summit on October 19th. The panel will explore assessing cyber risk and adequate defense measures to prevent malware, ransomware, and phishing through panelists' stories from the field. Kurtis will share the stage with experts from industry and Federal agencies. 

The International Bar Association (IBA) Annual Conference is the leading conference for legal professionals worldwide to meet, share knowledge, build contacts and develop business.

It serves to advance the development of international law and its role in business and society to provide members with world-class professional development opportunities to enable them to deliver outstanding legal services.

This week, GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on the Lock and Code podcast. During his episode, "Calling in the Ransomware Negotiator," Kurtis and host David Ruiz discuss the intricacies of ransomware negotiation. "In his experience, Minder has also learned that the current debate over whether companies should pay the ransom has too few options. For a lot of small and medium-sized businesses, the question isn't an ideological one, but an existential one: Pay the ransom or go out of business."

If you work in the cybersecurity field, you’ve seen an explosion of EDR (endpoint detection and response) tools in the last few years. There are EDR, MDR (managed detection and response), and XDR, (extended detection and response) tools everywhere. That market expansion won’t be slowing down anytime soon— the global market size is expected to grow from $2.6 billion this year to $5.6 billion by 2027. 

Service Providers Including Abacode, BreachBits, Cynergistek, Palladium GmbH and ProVelocity Sign on to Integrate Digital Risk Protection Services into Their Customer Offerings Worldwide

Local elections are an essential part of our democratic process. Smaller offices typically have a much larger impact on constituents' day-to-day lives, but what happens when those candidates don't feel safe enough to run? Recently, Bloomberg City Lab wrote about the hostility directed at candidates in local elections rising over the last couple of years. GroupSense Director of Intelligence Operations, Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, was featured in the article, commenting on threats to candidates in cyber space.

When you think of security in a government agency, lots of images might come to mind: key card scanners, color-coded security clearances, and complex access management systems. If you’ve ever worked for a government agency or contractor, you probably recall the hours of training modules on security protocols. When it comes to controlling access to information, these agencies have things locked down, but much like third-party data breaches or security incidents, there are weak links in the system. 

Over the past few months, threat actors carried out highly targeted SMS phishing attacks against Twilio, CloudFlare, and Cisco. With security or cybersecurity practices of their own, threat actors were particularly bold in carrying out these attacks, and they achieved varying levels of success. One thing that threat actors can count on, however, is that people will click on links no matter how much security training they go through— human error caused 82% of breaches in 2021.

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was honored to present at the Metroport Chamber Membership Luncheon on August 10. The Metroport Chamber brings seven business communities together to connect and build lasting partnerships that strengthen the Texas business community. 

Ransomware is hitting small businesses hard. But most of the legislation, regulations, and headlines focus on large businesses. The math is simple -- large businesses impact many end-users, and they have lots of money to pay lobbyists, so they wind up stealing the show when it comes to ransomware. But what about the local print shop, deli, or accounting office? Even though small businesses are suffering from ransomware 70 percent more often than large businesses (according to the Cyber Edge 2022 Cyberthreat Report), government regulations haven’t changed to accommodate them.

GroupSense COO Kelly Milan was featured on eChannelNews speaking on GroupSense's new MSP partnership program with Provelocity. In the video interview, Kelly and host Julian talk about the challenges that many organizations face when it comes to cybersecurity: looking beyond detection and response. With GroupSense's MSP program, organizations can cost-effectively monitor the cyber crime underground for risk. Because GroupSense operates outside of the firewall, our analysts can be on the same forums where cyber criminals conduct their business. This allows us to monitor for all of the things that a firewall can miss, and creates a more proactive cybersecurity posture.

Pro-Russian hacktivist group Killnet has kept very busy since Russia invaded Ukraine. After declaring war against organizations in Ukraine-allied countries, Killnet carried out attacks in Lithuania, Norway, and Italy, to name a few. These attacks have left many wondering if their organizations will be next.

During the week of July 18, GroupSense analysts noted an announcement from Killnet. The group claimed that they would attack Lockheed Martin, a US defense contractor, with a new cyber tool. This attack would be different than most others that Killnet carries out: they will not be using a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. GroupSense analysts believe that Killnet continue shifting away from DDoS attacks, and instead carry out hack-and-release attacks. GroupSense analysts provided screenshots and translations from hacking forums with evidence supporting the move from DDoS to hack-and-release.

On July 12, a Killnet affiliate group called Zarya Squad posted six files to Telegram they claim to have stolen from the State Archival Service of Ukraine.

Our last blog, “The OpSec Conversation You Haven’t Had,” highlighted the often-forgotten side of cybersecurity: operational security, or OpSec. The increase in remote work won’t stop anytime soon—research estimates that 36.2 million Americans will work from home by 2025. That’s an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. If your organization is starting to reevaluate its cybersecurity policies, a factor worth considering is the work-from-anywhere trend. Since employees can work from anywhere, they can protect your organization from anywhere. 

GroupSense CEO and chief ransomware negotiator Kurtis Minder was featured on the Malicious Life podcast. During the episode, Kurtis speaks with host Ran Levi about the ransomware negotiation process and how GroupSense's negotiation practice was formed over the past several years. 

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder is honored to present at the Metroport Chamber Membership Luncheon this August 10 in Texas. The Metroport Chamber brings seven business communities together to connect and build lasting partnerships that strengthen the Texas business community. 

As a digital risk protection company, GroupSense finds information in all kinds of places it shouldn’t be. If data has a monetary value, cyber criminals will do everything in their power to attain and sell that information on the dark web. Most security professionals expect to find data on the dark web or cyber crime forums, but they forget about another avenue: the outside world. With employees working from home, at the coffee shop, and in between flights at the airport, it’s not so hard for threat actors to overhear your conversation with a colleague about an important deal or personnel issues. With each bit of information said aloud, a malicious actor gets one more piece of your organization’s puzzle.

Partnership delivers enterprise-grade digital risk protection services to the mid-market

ARLINGTON, Va., July 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GroupSense, a digital risk protection company, today announced a new Managed Service Provider (MSP) partnership with Provelocity. The partnership will expand the reach of GroupSense's digital risk protection services, including ransomware readiness and response and recovery, to Provelocity's robust client base.

GroupSense CEO and Co-Founder Kurtis Minder was recently featured in SC Media with his article, "The Insider Threat Now Lives Outside the Office." In the article, Kurtis reviews the top ways that employees can help protect your organization's data. 

The days of sitting in your cubicle and overhearing colleagues discuss the latest deals, investment rounds, or client information are long gone, but those conversations are still happening. As the workforce—including your employees—distributes into coffee shops, airports, and co-working spaces, how are you protecting your organization’s private information? 

As Americans, our civic duties include voting, sitting on juries, and paying taxes—but those aren't the only duties that promote American values. GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder believes that cyber hygiene is your civic duty, too. Last weekend, Kurtis had the honor of presenting at TedX Grand Junction. During his talk, "What You Need to Know About Ransomware," Kurtis spoke about the actions we can all take to protect our nation and its critical infrastructure: small businesses.

This week, Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst Samira Pakmehr and Director of Intelligence Operations Bryce Webster-Jacobsen presented their talk, "The Role of Cryptocurrency in Ransomware Negotiations and Other Cybercrimes," at the virtual SANS Ransomware Summit. Packed with a full day of sessions, attendees come away from the summit with deeper insight into today's ransomware landscape and its inner workings. 

Note: This content was updated on June 29 with updates on Killnet's activity in Lithuania. 

Impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict keep coming, and the Russian military isn’t the only actor fighting to defend their country against adversaries. Nationalist hacking groups are launching geopolitically charged cyber attacks against perceived adversaries, including the hacktivist group called Killnet. Their main focus in the past few weeks are nations providing support to Ukraine.

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder presented at last week's Colorado Airport Operators Association (CAOA) Spring Conference in Grand Junction, CO. As part of our nation's critical infrastructure, the aviation industry is prone to ransomware and cyber attacks, just like utilities, state governments, and schools. Members of the CAOA have the opportunity to take action against ransomware in their industry by taking a few small steps.

After a two-year hiatus, RSA Conference returned to the Moscone Center in San Francisco for another exciting week. GroupSense’s CEO, Kurtis Minder, and Director of Intelligence Operations, Bryce-Webster Jacobsen, presented their talk, “Dissecting the Ransomware Killchain: Why Companies Need It,” to a packed audience. Kurtis was also interviewed by Jax S. of Outpost Gray. 

When faced with ransomware, revenue loss and damage to your organization’s reputation aren’t the only things to worry about. To reach the best-case scenario after an attack, your ransomware response team must understand how to talk to threat actors. With the right people on the team, you’re already off to a good start.

Ransomware is one of the most dynamic, constantly changing forms of cryptocurrency-based crime. As of February 2022, we’ve identified just over $720 million worth of ransomware payments in 2021 and that number keeps growing. But what happens when a business encounters ransomware?

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on Episode 14 of the Forgotten Art Project Podcast. During the episode, Kurtis and host David Weaver discuss Kurtis’s journey in entrepreneurship, how and why he got into the work he is doing, along with how GroupSense's company culture, values & leadership shaped who he is today.

Old misconceptions of lone hackers sitting in dark basements are long gone and are replaced by the new wave of cybercrime-as-a-service models marking a new era. With operations like many other businesses, ransomware and other cybercrime gangs have a business structure, “customer” support, and an org chart. How can organizations communicate effectively with the threat actors that are attacking their systems with ransomware? 

This week, GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder was featured on episode 126 of the Cybersecurity Matters Podcast with hosts Dominic Vogel and Christian Redshaw. During his episode, "Dealing with a Ransomware Attack," Kurtis and the hosts discussed:

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder will be speaking at the Colorado Airport Operators Association's Spring Conference taking place June 8-10, 2022 in Grand Junction, CO. The annual event will be held at the Grand Junction Convention Center. 

Ransomware attacks have increased significantly.

It’s no longer “good enough” to do the bare minimum to prevent ransomware. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported a 62% increase in ransomware reports from 2020 to 2021 – and that’s probably not even scratching the surface when you consider how many attacks aren’t reported every day. 

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder spoke at Colorado Mesa University’s Entrepreneurship Day on April 27. During his keynote, “The Software Won’t Save You,” he spoke about the genesis of GroupSense’s Ransomware practice, how attackers carry out ransomware attacks, and how each of us can help protect our own computer systems with simple cyber hygiene.

Cybersecurity professionals now think of ransomware as inevitable for organizations of all shapes and sizes. With a relatively quick payoff, ransomware provides cyber criminals with a fast, reliable revenue stream. If your organization is facing an attack, it’s vital to get the first few decisions right. 

This article was originally published on INC.com

The cyber threats public sector organizations face continue to evolve. And all too often, agencies and institutions are focused on securing against the threats of the past rather than planning for the next sophisticated attack. However, with the emergence of security tools built on machine learning, AI, predictive analytics and extended detection and response, that no longer has to be the case.

Ransomware attacks are more prevalent each day. Join GroupSense Director of Intelligence Operations Bryce Webster-Jacobsen and Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst Samira Pakmehr at this year's SANS Ransomware Summit on June 16, 2022 to learn more about how to stop your organization from becoming a ransomware horror story. Bryce and Samira will present on The Role of Cryptocurrency in Ransomware Negotiations and Other Cybercrimes on June 16 at 1:10-1:45pm ET. 

Join Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, on Saturday, June 18 for TedX Grand Junction. Positioned as a cultural leader in Western Colorado, Grand Junction challenges the region in powerful ways.

TedX Grand Junction encourages creativity, innovation, cultural awareness, and social impact through the power of big ideas. This year, the event will focus around the theme Reimagine. Buy tickets for the event at the Avalon Theater box office >

Recently Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, was featured in Lexology's "Social Links: Behavioral Targeting Under Scrutiny from Lawmakers" article. Bryce was quoted from his Axios feature: Activist Movements Drive Misinformation Mayhem. The Lexology highlight is below. 

On Wednesday, April 6th Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, will provide an overview of Operational Security and best practices to institute in hybrid work environments to the IrishAngels.

Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, will speak at Chainalysis Links in New York. The conference is being held May 18-19th 2022. The expanded event will feature 3 tracks of amazing content over 2 full days. Learn more about the event >

Recently Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, was a guest on Outpost Gray’s podcast. Kurtis did a Q&A with Jax, Outpost Gray founder and Cybersecurity Manager from Grant Thornton. They talked about ransomware prevention and negotiations.

Ransomware is a big business. It has been prominent since the mid-2000s, with Ransomware-as-a-Service emerging in 2016. A company impacted by ransomware could suffer devastating financial and reputational losses. We've compiled information on the ransomware market and what you need to know.

⁠Recently Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, was featured on Dark Reading's "What the Conti Ransomware Group Data Leak Tells Us".

Join Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, on March 31 at 3:30PM ET for a podcast with Outpost Gray on "How to Negotiate with a Cyber Threat Actor." 

⁠Recently Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, joined Bace Cybersecurity Institute for a webinar on Cryptocurrency and Security. The webinar walked through cryptocurrencies and the promise it delivers as a secure and efficient anonymous monetary transaction.

Ransomware attacks have exploded over the past few years, and ransomware groups have reinvested their earnings into their malicious businesses.

Threat actor groups have discovered a significant opportunity within the market to provide Ransomware-as-a- Service (RaaS). Much like the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings we are all familiar with, RaaS operations have employees, customer service, and a business structure to lean on. It paves the way for inexperienced threat actors to utilize the expertise of more advanced threat groups, ultimately expanding the effects of ransomware to a broader breadth of targets.

One RaaS group, Conti, became prolific over the last several years, with attack numbers above 1,000. The ransomware group is having a pretty bad month. After aligning themselves with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, assumed Ukrainian members took the liberty of leaking months’ worth of internal chat logs and documents, revealing their internal business structure, office politics, and pay scales. GroupSense analysts have been translating and digesting the information, corroborating the intelligence with data that they have already collected on Conti through threat investigations.

Conti

Conti has successfully targeted and impacted significant players from the financial sector to the software industry, such as the Japanese electronics supplier JVCKenwood, London-based high society jeweler Graff, and the Irish health system. Last year, GroupSense threat analysts observed Conti’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) when the group breached a client’s network and demanded ransom.

In a recent chat log leak, GroupSense learned that Conti has upper and middle management with entry-level employees that do the leg work. The separation of roles within Conti enables the employees to focus on specific parts of the cyber kill chain. Gaining initial access to the system is the most time-consuming part of the attack. It requires reconnaissance and planning, which “initial access brokers” work on over weekends. This leg work allows for more attacks and ultimately more revenue for the ransomware group.

Conti typically deploys their ransomware through targeted spear-phishing and broader phishing campaigns that contain malicious attachments or links. The attachments serve as vessels for deploying other malware that utilizes more advanced techniques. These vessels are typically called “loaders” or “downloaders,” and they will do their best to mask the actual malware such as TrickBot, or in this case, Conti ransomware.

When our client was hit with Conti last year, they hired GroupSense for our Ransomware Negotiation Services. As part of the service, GroupSense confirms that the actor returns the decrypted data before the client pays the ransom. After providing sufficient proof that the actor returned the data, our negotiator helped our client pay the ransom. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end here.

Conti Again?

Months later, the client’s customers started receiving phishing emails on the same thread that Conti used to communicate with the client, meaning the actor had access to the old email thread. This method, called email chain hijacking, allows the threat actor(s) to send phishing emails by replying to old email threads, which tricks victims into thinking the email is
legitimate. Access to the original email thread strongly indicates that Conti could be behind a repeat attack.

The phishing emails were riddled with typos, grammar mistakes and had other pronounced signs of phishing, including mismatched sender names and addresses with a badly spoofed email domain. Typically, when Conti uses phishing as a vector, they are careful to cover their tracks and make the email look as legitimate as possible. Email chain hijacking increases the likelihood of success for phishers. Furthermore, Conti was not known to use email chain hijacking in previous attacks. With these conflicting pieces of evidence, our analyst dove deeper to find out if the phishing attack was coming from Conti or a second and unrelated actor.

Connecting the Bots

The GroupSense analyst started an investigation to compile a list of threat actors who had
historically used the email chain hijacking technique within previous campaigns. During this investigation, the analyst identified the following groups:

• TrickBot Gang
• The newly revived Emotet
• TA 551 (Shatak)
• IcedID campaigns
• QakBot campaigns

In November 2021, the intelligence community discovered that the TrickBot Gang teamed up
with TA551 to deploy Conti ransomware. In January 2022, SANS found that Emotet had reemerged with help from the TrickBot group. In February 2022, AdvIntel discovered that the Conti group had taken over the TrickBot operations.

Knowing several roads lead back to the Conti Group, the analyst deployed the malicious link in a sandbox environment. The link downloaded several pieces of malware to the device, including the IcedID loader operated by TA 551. GroupSense assessed with high confidence that the Conti ransomware syndicate was actively targeting our client’s customer base using stolen email threads.

Below are the hashes gathered upon detonation and the IP addresses that the payload contacted.

IP Addresses:

• 208.95.112[.]1
• 23.21.43[.]186
• 54.225.179[.]233
• 82.221.103[.]243

Repeat Attacks

It’s rare for ransomware groups to attack the same target twice. Because RaaS groups run like businesses, they work on similar reputational rules as legitimate companies. If a RaaS group says they will return stolen data from their victims, they are expected to keep their word. If they return the data to the victims, they can only cash out on the data once.

In this case, Conti was trying to cash out twice on the same set of stolen data. Our analysts have not seen such a brazen attack that would damage a threat actor’s reputation before.

Wider Implications

This investigation suggests that the Conti ransomware syndicate is rapidly increasing its sophistication and standing in the initial access ecosystem. This increased sophistication means that they can hit larger, more complex systems and demand even higher ransoms in the future.

Austin, Texas & Arlington, Va. --CynergisTek (NYSE American: CTEK), leading cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, and IT audit firm helping organizations in highly regulated industries navigate emerging security and privacy issues, announces a new agreement with GroupSense to provide organizations with vital threat intelligence to identify and mitigate attacker activity. This partnership offers CynergisTek’s customer base ransomware negotiation services and provides increased capabilities around incident response (IR) training and tabletop exercises.

“In order for healthcare organizations to more successfully anticipate where cyber attackers are likely to be present, they need a clearer picture of their risk and a better understanding of their environment,” said Mac McMillan, President & CEO of CynergisTek. “Incorporating GroupSense’s capabilities into our Risk and Incident Response services enables us to assist our clients in performing better reconnaissance, thereby enhancing their resilience. Just as important as being able to anticipate the threat, so is being able to execute more precisely when adverse situations arise. Incorporating ransomware negotiation and deeper awareness into client IR immersive exercises and incident response further enhances the value of our support to our clients,” he says.

“I am excited about the launch of our partnership with CynergisTek,” said Kurtis Minder, founder and CEO of GroupSense. “Given the increased attack surface, especially in the healthcare industry, organizations need solutions, not an increase in alerts or data feeds. The combined digital risk and attack surface capability of GroupSense, with the solution expertise of CynergisTek, solves IT risk problems while reducing operational overhead.”

This partnership marks CynergisTek’s focus on building cyber resiliency by helping businesses become proactive against threats and develop effective incident response procedures. CynergisTek and GroupSense are providing customers with threat intelligence capabilities that allow for healthcare specific insight on where organizations should prioritize remediation efforts based on their specific risk profile. CynergisTek clients will have access to additional threat monitoring and foot printing capabilities that help expose unknown gaps that organizations may have with the use of GroupSense’s cyber reconnaissance platform and team of highly trained analysts.

About GroupSense

GroupSense is a digital risk protection services company that delivers customer-specific intelligence that dramatically improves enterprise cybersecurity and fraud-management operations. Unlike generic cyber-intelligence vendors, GroupSense uses a combination of automated and human reconnaissance to create finished intelligence that maps to each customer's specific digital business footprint and risk profile. This enables customers and partners to immediately use GroupSense's intelligence to reduce enterprise risk, without requiring any additional processing or management by overstretched security and fraud-prevention teams. GroupSense is based in Arlington, Va., with a growing customer base that includes large enterprises, state and municipal governments, law enforcement agencies and more.

About CynergisTek, Inc.

CynergisTek is a top-ranked cybersecurity consulting firm helping organizations in highly-regulated industries, including those in healthcare, government, and finance navigate emerging security and privacy issues. CynergisTek combines intelligence, expertise, and a distinct methodology to validate a company's security posture and ensure the team is rehearsed, prepared, and resilient against threats. Since 2004, CynergisTek has been dedicated to hiring and retaining experts who bring real-life experience and hold advanced certifications to support and educate the industry by contributing to relevant industry associations.

Original Press Release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220316005363/en

Entrepreneurship Day is back at Colorado Mesa University. Join GroupSense CEO, Kurtis Minder, as he gives the keynote on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022. 

Kelly Milan, GroupSense, will attend HIMSS with our friends at CynergisTek on Tuesday, March 15th and Wednesday, March 16th. He will give two demos on Tuesday and Wednesday in CynergisTek's booth (#4942) on Hacking and Healthcare.

Earlier this week, a Ukrainian security researcher with insights into the Conti ransomware group leaked almost two years’ worth of internal chat logs. Conti is responsible for a number of high profile ransomware attacks.

Adam Bregenzer, GroupSense's CTO, was a guest on the ModernCTO podcast. He spoke to Joel Beasley about ransomware readiness, defense, and negotiation. Below are a few of our favorite clips, as well as the full episode! 

On Wednesday, March 9th, GroupSense CEO, Kurtis Minder, will co-present "Wisconsin Under Attack: Responding to Cyber Criminals" at the 54th Annual - Wisconsin Governor's Conference on Emergency Management and Homeland Security with LTC Sarah Frater. 

Kurtis Minder, CEO of GroupSense, was a guest on Episode #209 of Task Force 7 Radio's podcast. Kurtis talked to co-host Andy Bonillo about lessons from a ransomware negotiator, why small businesses need cybersecurity resources, as well as how cyber criminals may be shifting their focus during the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Below are a few highlights from the interview.

Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, will speak at a CHIME focus session with Mac McMillan, CynergisTek CEO on Monday March 7th. Kurtis and Mac will have an active discussion around the sophistication of cyberattacks affecting healthcare institutions across the country and around the globe.

Join Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, on Thursday, April 7, 2022 from 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM CT for Innovate Springfield.

2021 was another pivotal year for ransomware attacks. Cybercrime was expected to hit $6 trillion and is expected to grow by 15% annually during the next five years. 

GroupSense Adds Nearly 50 Fortune 1000 Companies and Governments to its Roster, Delivering Customer-Specific Intelligence to Help Them Significantly Reduce Digital Risk

ARLINGTON, Va., March 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GroupSense, a digital risk protection services company, today announced several notable achievements from 2021, including 75 percent year-over-year subscriber growth, adding nearly 50 new customers and 6 new partnerships, among many other impressive milestones. The company has successfully helped its customers reduce risk from data breaches, ransomware, election security, disinformation, fraud and more.

GroupSense has been negotiating with threat actors on the underbelly of the internet for years, so we are uniquely suited to assist in ransomware negotiations. We often get the question, what does a ransomware negotiator do? A ransomware negotiator acts as a mediator between a ransomware victim and the ransomware operator. This role is an important one, providing an objective view of the situation, empowering the victim with enough information to make an informed business decision on whether to pay a ransom, and providing a layer of operational security between the victim and the ransomware operator.

As Russia unleashes war on Ukraine, many are asking about a possible Russian cyber-attack. Asharq News interviewed Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, about the Russian Ukraine Conflict and its impact on the cyber nexus.

TV Globo interviewed GroupSense's CEO and Ransomware Negotiator, Kurtis Minder, about how ransomware attacks have doubled in the US because of the pandemic. Below is a translated transcript of the article. Watch the clip in the article to hear Kurtis talk about the topic. 

Note: Article and video clip linked is in Portuguese. 

CyberNews interviewed GroupSense's Director of Intelligence Operations, Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, about cyber attack landscape and its business impact. Below is a transcript of Bryce's interview with CyberNews. 

⁠Join Bace Cybersecurity Institute for a webinar on Cryptocurrency and Security. Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, will join David Rosenthal, formerly at Sun Microsystems and Nvidia, to discuss the reality of cryptocurrencies on Wednesday, February 16th, 2022 at 11am PT / 2pm ET⁠. Learn about the event >

Earlier this week, Kurtis Minder, CEO at GroupSense, joined Defendify's Cyber Crystal Ball panel with Lori Sussman, Professor at University of Southern Maine and Antoinette King, Founder at Credo Cyber Consulting.

Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, was featured in VICE Media's "I Stop Multimillion Dollar Cyberattacks." Kurtis spoke to VICE about his experience as a ransomware negotiator and what happens during and after a ransomware attack. 

Hackers have increasingly roped in everyday people whose information is stored in computers that have been breached, pestering them by phone and email.

On January 27th, Kurtis Minder, CEO of GroupSense, will join Defendify's Cyber Crystal Ball panel to reflect on 2021. IT professionals and organizations were dealt some difficult cards, and "the cards don't lie, Honey". You don't have to be psychic to predict more of the same coming in 2022.

GroupSense's CTO, Adam Bregenzer, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's Senior Advisor, Beau Woods, have developed a new open-source search tool to help cybersecurity professionals navigate the ever-growing list of software products impacted by Log4j. "Beau and I wanted to make the vast list of software organizations sortable and searchable. By default it's just a very large web page," Adam Bregenzer. 

Earlier this week, GroupSense's CEO, Kurtis Minder, participated in *AIMA's APAC Webinar: Cyber Security x Ransomware: Squid Games Edition.

*Note: An account is needed to view the replay.

GroupSense’s CTO, Adam Bregenzer, participated on the Security Analytics & XDR Demo Forum with Richard Stiennon, as well as BlackCloak, Cyberint, and Digital Shadows. They discussed Digital Risk Protection around intel collection strategy, initial access brokers, and threat intel SOC integration.

Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at GroupSense, was quoted in Axios' article, "New Wave of Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories". Bryce spoke to Sara Fischer, Media Reporter at Axios, about conspiracy theories surrounding the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capital. 

Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, started 2022 off on the right foot with a feature on Infosecurity. He shared his top five cybersecurity tools that companies need to implement right now. While these items may be considered “cybersecurity 101,” you’d be surprised how many organizations don’t have these measures in place. Below is a snippet from the article. 

WhatsApp is a popular social messaging platform used worldwide. With such a large audience, threat actors use it to spread disinformation, distribute malware and carry out many more cyber attacks. Read our white paper to understand the threats you or your colleagues can face from using the messaging app.

Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO and cofounder, sat down with Joe Meadows, Partner at Gordon & Rees, and talked about seven tips for negotiating with hackers (or anyone for that matter!). Here are a few highlights of that conversation:

GroupSense CEO and co-founder, Kurtis Minder, Intelligence Analyst, Nicole Hoffman, and Director of Intelligence Operations, Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, are speaking at CactusCon February 4-5, 2022. 

Ransomware attacks have increased significantly over the past year. On Tuesday, February 22^nd, join Jeremy Rasmussen, Chief Technology Officer at Abacode, and renowned ransomware negotiator and CEO of GroupSense, Kurtis Minder, to get behind the scenes exclusive access and insight into what happens after a ransomware attack.

On January 18th, Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO, will join AIMA for their APAC Webinar: Cyber security x Ransomware: Squid Games Edition.

GroupSense CEO Kurtis Minder, will join NYLIB as a keynote speaker highlighting his experience in the cyber security space. Afterwards, NYLIB will host a panel discussion focused on cyber security risks facing banks, current trends, and best practices.

In 2021, we saw a steady rise in the number of ransomware attacks. It’s projected that global ransomware damage costs will reach $20 billion by the end of 2021. Nearly every week, you hear of a new high-profile catastrophic breach, but organizations of all sizes have been critically impacted by ransomware and cyber threats.

GroupSense CEO and co-founder, Kurtis Minder, and Director of Intelligence Operations, Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, are speaking at the RSA Conference June 6-9, 2022.

Kurtis Minder, Ransomware Negotiator and GroupSense CEO, was featured on MIT Technology Review & ProPublica's: The Bad Actors – The Extortion Economy podcast. This series is hosted by Meg Marco and produced by Emma Cillekens, Tate Ryan-Mosley and Anthony Green. The podcast dives into the criminal world where the stakes are high, but the methods are increasingly business-like and meet the people who interact with the ransomware hackers.

GroupSense performed a deep and dark web investigation into the critical remote code execution (RCE) zero-day impacting the Apache Java-based logging utility Log4j (CVE-2021-44228). This high severity vulnerability is already being actively exploited in the wild, per numerous public reports. The attack vector is extremely trivial for threat actors to exploit, requiring only a single string of code, and impacts software products from numerous vendors. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is maintaining an updated list of affected vendors.

Cyber Resilience is like muscle – training helps you achieve more. In this Ransomware Bootcamp seminar, you will learn about the changes to cyber insurance and how to prepare for them, an inside perspective from a ransomware negotiator, and steps on how to train your resilience muscle to strengthen your defensive and offensive strategies. 

CynergisTek, Lockton Companies, and GroupSense provided insider insights on how to stay ahead of the curve and protect yourself from being the next target.

"The healthcare industry lost an estimated $25 billion to ransomware attacks in 2019," SafeAtLast.

Elissa Doroff, Managing Director & Cyber Technical Leader at Lockton Companies, presented "Cyber Insurance - The Effects of Ransomware". Ransomware attacks accounted for 41% of all filed cyber insurance claims in the first half of 2020, according to a report by Coalition. To keep up with the cost, and rise in claim occurrence, cyber insurance providers are implementing compliance requirements that, depending on compliance capability, might increase your coverage cost or deem you ineligible to be insured at all.

Elissa Doroff covered the following in her session:

• Background of the always-evolving cyber insurance industry. Once deemed an organizational “nice to have”, finds itself in a pivotal point that may change the insured’s coverage decision forever.
• A walkthrough of the top 10 cybersecurity compliance standards, and a deep dive into why they are important, and what they mean.
• What happens once you become insured. Including best practices to work with your insurance company, how cyber insurance works, a look into filing a claim, and a broker’s perspective on breach response.

Kurtis Minder followed Elissa and presented "Real Life Perspectives from a Ransomware Negotiator". No one ever expects it to happen to them, but with ransomware and cybercrime on the rise, it’s more likely than ever to discover that ransomware has locked down your system and cybercriminals are holding your data hostage. 

"2020 Healthcare attacks involved the theft or exposure of the protected health information of at least 18,069,012 patients," HIPPA Journal.

Kurtis Minder covered the following in his session:

The residue of ransomware is infiltrating our psychology and pocketbooks. Is politics next?

Earlier this year, GroupSense spoke to Erika Hellerstein, Senior Reporter at Coda, about connecting links between disinformation and ransomware, as well as GroupSense's backstory on how they became ransomware negotiators.

Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at digital risk protection / ransomware negotiators GroupSense, was a featured in Axios' article "Activist Movements Drive Misinformation Mayhem. Bryce spoke to Sara Fischer about anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and how they are becoming dangerous spreaders of misinformation.

GroupSense does some of the largest negotiations for ransomware. Ransomware is a quick and easy path to revenue for criminals. Unfortunately, ransomware isn’t always the first play in a criminal’s playbook. They usually have been in your network for a while and deploy ransomware after they’ve accessed all your data. GroupSense’s team of experienced negotiators developed cybersecurity tips to help reduce your risk.

Cyber Resilience is like muscle – training helps you achieve more. In this Ransomware Bootcamp seminar, you will learn about the changes to cyber insurance and how to prepare for them, an inside perspective from a ransomware negotiator, and steps on how to train your resilience muscle to strengthen your defensive and offensive strategies. 

Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at digital risk protection / ransomware negotiators GroupSense, was a featured on SC Media. Bryce spoke to Joe Uchill about the cyber insurance bubble bursting and how organizations need to take a different approach.

Earlier this week, Kurtis Minder, GroupSense CEO & Co-founder, was interviewed by Aviva Zacks, Cybersecurity Expert and Writer at SafetyDectives. During the interview they discussed GroupSense's backstory, how GroupSense serves their clients, what makes GroupSense so unique, and the worst cyberthreat out there today. Below are a few highlights from the interview.

Join Nicole Hoffman, GroupSense Intelligence Analyst, on Saturday, November 6th (12PM CT) at BSidesDFW! Nicole is presenting The Cognitive Stairways of Analysis.

When a mysterious Russian hacking gang announced last week that it had assaulted the National Rifle Association with a ransomware attack, the NRA was quiet on whether the claim was true. But a network of hundreds of Twitter trolls were far from mute—they lapped up the news and went to town amplifying it across Twitter.

After the notorious Grief ransomware group added the National Rifle Association to its public list of victims, messages of the breach was reportedly amplified by a network of fake Twitter accounts. While it's still unclear if the network is connected to Grief, experts worry it could mark the beginning of information campaigns being added to the ransomware arsenal.

On Thursday, October 28th, GroupSense's CEO, Kurtis Minder, spoke at Convent's 4th Annual Cybersecurity Conference. Kurtis spoke to Andreas Horchler, Founder & Managing Partner of podcon.de, about his experiences as a Ransomware Negotiator and how to negotiate with ransomware hackers.

On Friday, October 15th, GroupSense's CEO, Kurtis Minder, spoke at The Fairfax County's Department of Information Technology event for Cyber Security Awareness Month. Kurtis spoke about reducing ransomware — from prevention through recovery.

Cybercrime Radio, host Hillarie McClure spoke with Kurtis Minder, a ransomware negotiator and CEO of GroupSense, a leading provider in Cyber Reconnaissance.

Ransomware needs its own kill chain framework

GroupSense's Intelligence Analyst, Nicole Hoffman, is featured in SC Media. Nicole explains the evolution of the Cyber Kill Chain developed by Lockheed Martin and argues that the industry needs a kill chain specifically for ransomware.

The dark web is often seen as a virtual back alley — a shady place where underground deals are made and criminal gangs plot their next heist. While most law-abiding citizens tend to steer clear of the dark web, the growing number of ransomware attacks and cybercriminal cases has made it far too dangerous to ignore. 

By Kurtis Minder, CEO, GroupSense

A husband and wife espionage team could face up to 10 years in prison after investigators discovered their alleged attempts to hide — and sell — top-secret military information in ordinary items such as a peanut butter sandwich and a stick of chewing gum.

WIRED Security will explore current issues and top priorities for security experts to protect the digital and physical future of business. The event gathers the innovators, disruptors and leaders in security for a day of eye-opening and inspirational stories, case studies and workshops that cover new cybersecurity threats, deal with disruptive technologies and build resilience in a world that’s constantly changing.

9:15 a.m. (PDT) — No More Yelling in the Boardroom: How Companies Misunderstood Ransomware Response — Talk by Kurtis Minder, CEO, GroupSense, and moderated Q&A with Alex Chitea, Principal, Technology Group, Orange Silicon Valley

More weight should be placed on consideration of the victims whose business has been ground to a halt in the aftermath of ransomware attacks, according to Kurtis Minder, CEO and co-founder of security firm GroupSense, which helps ransomware victims negotiate with cybercriminals if they can’t obtain a decryption key otherwise.

Kurtis Minder, CEO of the American cyber security company GroupSense, has been busy acting as a ransom negotiator in ransomware cases. It started with a client who needed help, and then as the number of cases increased, he refined his ability to negotiate with the criminal gangs on the other side.

Join Kaufman Rossin CEOLink with our partner GrayRobinson for a one-hour session, Technology Risks & Rewards: 2021 and Beyond, moderated by WLRN's Tom Hudson, host of The Sunshine Economy.

“What bothers me most is how preventable this all is.”

Kurtis Minder, CEO of GroupSense, provided commentary to The Baltimore Sun yesterday about “vaccinating” a company against ransomware. “What bothers me most is how preventable this all is. In fact, like current COVID-19 deaths, it’s at least 99.2% preventable. “Vaccinating” a company against ransomware isn’t expensive or technically daunting — yet companies fail at simple cyber hygiene and put their businesses, our critical infrastructure, and sometimes even people’s lives, at risk,” says Kurtis Minder.

Below are a few highlights from Kurtis’ op-ed.

In this interview Rodrigo Andrade receives Kurtis Minder, CEO of GroupSense and Ransomware Negotiator. They talk about what to do in case of attacks, who are the main targets and how to prevent and stay safe from these crimes.

Ransomware. Does that term ring a bell? Even if you've never heard those words before, trust me, most of us have experienced Ransomware one way or another. If you live on the East Coast, you remember waiting long hours at the gas pump this past May. That's because a hacking group known as DarkSide hacked the Colonial Pipeline. The hackers demanded a ransom for 75 bitcoins which is equivalent to $4.4 million. How did the hackers break into the oil company's system? Easy. Some employees used the same password they used on another account that was previously hacked. And guess what? Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom and the hackers. $4.4. million dollars—gone, just like that.

Question: How can I reduce the chances of my company getting hit by ransomware? Where do I start?

The Ragnar Locker ransomware gang put its victims on notice: If victims call investigators, the FBI or ransomware negotiators for help the punishment will be publishing encrypted files.

Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence Operations at digital risk protection / ransomware negotiators GroupSense, was a featured guest on Threatpost’s podcast this week. Bryce spoke to Lisa Vaas about what Ragnar Locker got wrong about ransomware negotiators. Below are a few highlights from the conversation.

Kurtis Minder shielded his laptop screen from prying eyes in the airline seats around him.

Ransomware attacks have increased significantly over the past year. There were 93% more ransomware attacks carried out in the first half of 2021 than the same period last year.

On Monday, cryptocurrency finance firm the Poly Network ended its strange journey with a hacker or hackers who stole $611 million, when the remaining funds were returned. It was a sequence of events so baffling, it will leave many people to wonder if common-sense rules for negotiations still apply.

By Kurtis Minder, co-founder and CEO of GroupSense

A year and a half ago, I was pulled into a ransomware negotiation as a lead negotiator. My company has been negotiating with threat actors on the underbelly of the internet for years, so we were uniquely suited to assist. Following that case, more cases came that varied in size and complexity. 

They used to be a safe space for hackers to coordinate attacks, but with online forums worried about unwanted attention from law enforcement, many have banned ransomware posts. And—as is usually the case in the whack-a-mole game of hacking—cybercriminals are finding a way around the new restrictions: a coded language to bypass suspicion.

According to a former senior White House official, 2020 was the year that ransomware went from being a nuisance to a full-scale national security threat and a “scourge.” The frequency of ransomware attacks has increased dramatically over the past year, with 93% more carried out in the first half of 2021 than the same period last year. Ransom payments topped over $400 million last year and is on pace for another record breaking year in 2021. Although those payments may seem jaw-dropping its nothing compared to the damage that a ransomware attack can cause on enterprises and critical infrastructure such as the attack on Colonial Pipeline.

On today’s No Name Security Podcast, Matt Stephenson welcomes 3 people doing very cool things in a very cool industry… and… they happen to be to very cool people. Kurtis Minder is the co-founder and CEO at GroupSense, Tom Pace is the co-founder and CEO at NetRise and Scott Scheferman is the Chief Strategist at Eclypsium. They are each legendary incident response types who were at Black Hat for a multitude of reasons. Why were they there…? Stick around and find out!

Ransomware is a present-day digital plague — cold, methodical and indifferent. Spreading from source to source, it can lie dormant within networks for years, biding its time before striking.

Background

On 5 August 2021, a seemingly disgruntled Russian-speaking threat actor claiming to work as an affiliate for the popular ransomware group Conti leaked on the underground forum XSS a 113 MB archive of training materials and tools allegedly used by Conti to conduct its ransomware attacks (Figure 1). 

When: August 6th, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm PST

Where: DEF CON main stage panel

According to a former senior White House official, 2020 was the year that ransomware went from being a nuisance to a full-scale national security threat and a “scourge.” After an awkward adolescence spent shaking down individual users for a couple hundred dollars and a big debut in 2017 with WannaCry and NotPetya , ransomware really hit the big time in 2020.

Ransomware attacks are not a new phenomenon, but they have increased exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic. Cybersecurity experts attribute the surge, in part, to the shift to people working from home and away from the safe perimeters of corporate networks.

So much for darkened servers at the headquarters of DarkSide or REvil ransomware groups. Turns out, we’ve got either their rebranded versions or two new ransomware gangs  to contend with.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are becoming the preferred payment method in ransomware attacks, in which computer data is held hostage by malicious software. But crypto's anonymity means cybercriminals are becoming even harder to trace and prosecute.

On Thursday, the software company Kaseya announced that it could help unlock any of its customers’ systems that were still inaccessible following a devastating ransomware attack early this month that took down as many as 1,500 businesses worldwide. But for many victims it was too little, too late.

The technology provider at the center of a ransomware attack this month said it obtained a tool to unlock data targeted by hackers in an incident that disrupted hundreds of firms in several countries.

Kurtis Minder joins Dominique Shelton Leipzig and David Biderman on the Decrypted Unscripted podcast to discuss how GroupSense’s team of cyberspies knows how to find where the bad guys are operating and work with clients to protect their data. He describes in detail how he became the “go-to” ransomware negotiator in the country. He also explains the dark web and how it helps criminals steal information and shares why his team has seen a steady increase in threat actors accessing data remotely over the last 12 months.

In a series of ransomware payment negotiations last December, operatives from a gang known as “Egregor” alternated from treating their victims with surprising civility, and behaving like cartoonish movie villains.

Last week, the servers of ransomware giant REvil vanished.

The rush to go digital during Covid-19 has coincided with a marked rise in ransomware attacks.

Guest Kurtis Minder from GroupSense joins Dave to discuss divergent ransomware trends, the guys have a listener reminder about it being CompTIA, Joe, Dave has a story about a coupon scam in the Houston area, Joe's story is about a real estate rental scam and a scammer who likes to talk about his work, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Craig with an email about an unprofessional colleague and a questionable attachment.

The dark web sites operated by the notorious REvil ransomware group suddenly went offline on Tuesday, prompting speculation that the US or Russian governments stepped in. Meanwhile, victims and the security companies working for them to recover data have been put in a more difficult situation.

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - Websites run by the ransomware gang REvil suddenly became unreachable on Tuesday, sparking widespread speculation that the group had been knocked offline.

A cybercriminal group that took responsibility for a massive ransomware attack that affected hundreds of businesses this month has disappeared from sight online.

Just days after President Biden called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and demanded that he act to shut down ransomware groups that are attacking American targets, the biggest of them has gone off-line. The mystery is who made that happen.

Just hours before the Fourth of July weekend, a huge, coordinated cyberattack hit hundreds of businesses across the world. A group of hackers broke in by exploiting a hole in the software code of an information technology company with a wide-ranging client base, then demanded $70 million in ransom.

The rise of ransomware attacks directed at U.S. companies is creating demand for a new service from cybersecurity companies: ransomware negotiations. 

GroupSense analysts became aware of a wide-spread attack leveraging Kaseya’s Vector Signal Analysis (VSA) platform, commonly in use by Managed Service Providers.

A growing swarm of ransomware attacks has created a cottage industry of tech whizzes willing to do what companies and law enforcement won’t: negotiate with the cybercriminals taking systems and data hostage.

Besides outright banning ransom payments, one of the most widely circulated policy ideas to curtail ransomware would be to treat cryptocurrencies as a bonafide component of the financial system: require cryptocurrency exchanges or the cryptocurrencies themselves to abide by regulations that reduce anonymity and prevent money laundering.

If you have been reading about or watching news shows discussing ransomware, more than likely, you have seen Kurtis Minder. He has been nearly omnipresent across multiple platforms because his team at Groupsense has been putting in the work to help the victims of ransomware attacks negotiate with attackers in order to get their data back.

For cybercriminals looking to launder illicit gains, bitcoin has long been the payment method of choice. But another cryptocurrency is coming to the fore, promising to help make dirty money disappear without a trace.

Ransomware attacks have become one of the biggest threats in cybersecurity today. Cybercriminals have blocked access to a major US oil pipeline, shut down hospitals in Ireland and halted operations in the world's largest meat processing company.

The most pervasive wisdom about preventing damage from ransomware is to backup systems. FujiFilm and Colonial Pipeline in fact, restored from back-ups. So in an era of increased concern about ransomware, is solving the ransomware scourge as simple as investing in some backups?

In the past year, several Illinois organizations have been compromised by ransomware groups, which often demand payment in cryptocurrency under threat of compromising services or leaking sensitive data.

Kurtis Minder, CEO of threat intelligence firm GroupSense, received a lot of press as a top negotiator in ransomware cases. But he’d rather you not hire him or his peers to negotiate. Instead, he says, he’d much rather you stop the ransomware attack before you’d ever need to call him in.

Kurtis Minder speaks to Razia Iqbal of BBC News on what happens when a ransomware attack occurs and if they can be prevented. In his discussion he explains the basic steps he takes when starting a ransomware negotiation and his experiences throughout the process. 

Kurtis Minder told CNN when discussing ransomware negotiation: "Part of this whole process is also about being a counselor and helping them (the victim) remain objective during this unfortunate event." 

Recent ransomware attacks have shown just how vulnerable any business can be to hackers. The growing threat has forced some companies to negotiate with hackers, and has created a whole new business to help corporations navigate the process. Kurtis Minder, a ransomware negotiator and the founder and CEO of GroupSense, joined CBSN to discuss.

Arlington, Va. – June 08, 2021 – GroupSense, a digital risk protection services company, and leading crypotcurrency intelligence company CipherTrace, accounce combining their threat intelligence offerings for enterprise clients who are victims of ransomware attacks.

Hackers are making millions from ransomware attacks. What can be done to stop them? Ed Butler speaks to professional ransomware negotiator Kurtis Minder, about the increasing professionalisation of the ransomware business. Kimberly Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis explains why following the bitcoin trail may be the best way of bringing ransomware gangs to justice and Vishaal Hariprasad, boss of cyber insurance company Resilience, tells us why the ransomware threat means there needs to be a stepchange in how companies view cyber security.

Ransomware is not just a problem for large enterprises and utility companies, it is impacting thousands of small and medium businesses in all sectors. Kurtis Minder, founder of digital risk protection services company GroupSense, has led the response, mitigation, and negotiations of ransomware incidents world-wide. He will share how these attacks occur, who are the perpetrators, how to minimize the chances of being a victim, and what to do if you are.

The U.S. government says it's taking ransomware attacks as seriously as terrorism after meat plants and a major U.S. pipeline network were temporarily shuttered by hackers. But will that make it any easier to catch the perpetrators? Joe Uchill, a senior reporter with online cybersecurity publication SC Media, brings us the view from Washington. We also speak with Kurtis Minder, founder and CEO of GroupSense, which helps organizations defend against cyber threats; and David Shipley, co-founder and CEO of Fredericton-based cybersecurity startup Beauceron Security.

Kurtis Minder, #GroupSense CEO, speaks to Bloomberg about ransomware and ransomware negotiations  at 41:52. 

At GroupSense, there’s such a demand for ransomware remediation services they’ve added a hotline that’s featured prominently on the frontpage of their website. No one escapes this form of cyberthreat, Minder told Insider.

Kurtis Minder has some advice about how to negotiate with criminals who extort millions of dollars by crippling companies’ computer systems and stealing their data: Don’t call them “bad guys.”

A few days after Thanksgiving last year, Kurtis Minder got a message from a man whose small construction-engineering firm in upstate New York had been hacked. Minder and his security company, GroupSense, got calls and e-mails like this all the time now, many of them tinged with panic. An employee at a brewery, or a printshop, or a Web-design company would show up for work one morning and find all the computer files locked and a ransom note demanding a cryptocurrency payment to release them.

Ransomware attacks that lock up a victim's systems have become more common. So have people who negotiate with the hackers on behalf of the victims. Kurtis Minder, co-founder of the cyber reconnaissance startup GroupSense, discusses what those negotiations are like, and cybersecurity reporter David Uberti discusses how this approach is viewed within the cyber community. Christopher Zinsli hosts...

Kurtis Minder got into the ransomware negotiation business by accident early last year.

“Industrywide, there is a lack of attention to some of the common things that cause breaches and open companies up to ransomware,” Maley says. “We’re becoming immune to these types of things, as they happen more frequently. We’re seeing the same things across sectors. It’s a lack of attention to the basics.”

Since the publishing of this blog post, GroupSense has rebranded the R³A into the Ransomware Response Readiness Subscription (R³S). You can find more information on the R³S service here.

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ARLINGTON, Va., May 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GroupSense, a digital risk protection services company, today announced its Ransomware Response Readiness Assessment (R³A) service offering.

GroupSense's threat intelligence team, including experts who have extensive experience remediating ransomware attacks, will provide three core functions as part of this new service: a readiness assessment, to identify gaps in ransomware response capabilities; a response playbook, to provide a step-by-step action plan should an attack occur; and a tabletop exercise, to test and validate the playbook.

Join this month's episode of The (Security) Balancing Act as Diana Kelley and guests discuss why ransomware is surging again, which sectors are most at risk, the threat to enterprises and how it is being used for more than just ransom (ex: distractionware, destructionware, etc).
- The rise in ransomware under the cloak of the pandemic
- Why email continues to be the channel of choice
- The difference between fully automated and human-operated campaigns
- How to decide whether or not to pay or not to pay the ransom
- Why your backups may not be immune to ransomware
- Addressing the threat with best practices

Speakers
- Nicole Hoffman, Intelligence Analyst, GroupSense
- Courtney Radke, CISO for National Retail, Fortinet
- Patrick Lee, Senior Incident Response Consultant, Rapid7

Recently, a hacker known as PeteRepete leaked over 533 million Facebook users’ personal information online. There were no passwords in the database, but it did contain full names, phone numbers, email addresses, employer information, and a few other pieces of information from Facebook users’ profiles. GroupSense confirmed only a small portion of the records contained email addresses, but almost all of the records contained a phone number. 

Security ratings services have become a popular way for companies to assess their own cybersecurity posture, as well as that of their partners. And, while they are useful for establishing a data baseline of competence, they are often relied on as something more than that. For example, they’re used in boardrooms as “eye candy” to portray the state of company cyber-risk, with supply chain partners to manage third-party risk and, even more frightening, by insurance companies to create risk profiles for cyber-insurance policies.

Imagine, for a moment, that you own a small business -- say, a regional dairy farm producing milk, ice cream, yogurt, and other products. And, like so many companies in the food manufacturing sector, you get hit by ransomware. You can’t access any of the data you need to run your business -- so you don’t know which products to ship, where to ship them, what prices you’ve negotiated, who’s paid and who hasn’t… everything is locked up. And, the clock is ticking -- you can’t tolerate extended downtime or products will spoil and customers will defect to other vendors.

As ransomware attacks continue to surge across the globe, the demand for negotiation services has also increased -- and been hard to fill.

Big Game Hunting, the targeted large-scale ransomware campaign, is now regarded as the primary cyber threat to organizations across all sectors including financial, healthcare, and government in 2021. Leaking stolen data in an effort to pressure victims into paying is part of a broader trend across the BGH ecosystem. In the recent headlines, the ransomware operators go beyond the traditional dominance of Windows operating systems and now target VMware ESXi hypervisor. In this Ransomware Battleground, let’s look at how SPRITE SPIDER(Defray777 Ransomware) and CARBON SPIDER (Parkside Ransomware) operate in volume tactics. How do Cybercrime actors now back to use Linux variants of ransomware configured specifically to affect ESXi hosts?

In this talk, we will cover:
- What are Big Game Hunting tactics? And what did ransomware operator behavior change during Covid-19? (from POS to ESXi)
- How do you defend encrypting virtual infrastructure in your corporate network? Credential harvesting and payload ingesting?
- Why is Agentless Zero Trust Isolation and Ransomware Kill Switch the answer to stop Hypervisor "Jackpotting"?

Users quickly adopted the cloud storage tool Dropbox at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to alleviate file sharing issues and facilitate group work. Updates to Dropbox Spaces, a project management tool, reflect this shift, easing communications for remote work.¹ The file-sharing company seeks to enhance collaboration and information-sharing within a distributed workforce, both now and in the future.