Ransomware and Cyber Extortion: Response and Prevention

Chapter 3

Anatomy of an Attack

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

—Sun Tzu

Learning Objectives

• Identify the key activities associated with a cyber extortion incident

• Understand common technical methods that cyber extortion gangs use to gain access to victim networks

• Describe tools and tactics that adversaries use to gain entry, expand, appraise, prime the environment, and gain leverage over their victims

• Identify opportunities for detection at each phase

A cyber extortion attack is never just a cyber extortion attack. There is always an escalation in activities from the adversary’s initial entry, expansion throughout the environment, and ultimately the extortion threat.

While every ...