A Q&A with Bill Siegel of Coveware Given the prevalence and sophistication of ransomware—not to mention the financial stakes involved in these exploits—it’s no longer wise to leave delicate negotiations to internal staff. We spoke to Coveware’s CEO and cofounder Bill Siegel about the nuances involved in handling threat actors and why having data at…

A Q&A with Chris Nyhuis of Vigilant Technology SolutionsCyber security threats are always evolving, but in the last six months, a vicious new breed of ransomware attack has emerged, powerful enough to take down an enterprise organization. To learn more about it, we talked to Chris Nyhuis, President and CEO of Vigilant Technology Solutions, an…

A Q&A with Asaf Cidon of Barracuda The recent reports about Popcorn Time—a ransomware attack that involves a Ponzi scheme encouraging targets to in turn spread the malware to contacts—show that criminals are becoming ever more creative in their approaches to cybersecurity exploits. I spoke with Asaf Cidon, VP of Content Security at Barracuda about…

Q&A with Chris Novak of Verizon Even as public awareness around ransomware grows, many companies find they are still unprepared for this malicious exploit when it hits. Often, organizations find that despite their best intentions to cooperate with the perpetrators, they still may not get their data back. I talked to Chris Novak, global director…

A Q&A with Matt Ahrens, The Crypsis Group Last week, the devastating WannaCry attack— considered unprecedented in its scale and speed—hit more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries, including the National Health Service, FedEx, Deutsche Ban and LATAM Airlines, among others. I asked Matt Ahrens of The Crypsis Group about the attack, what made it…

A Q&A with Bob Bell and Luke Emrich of RSM US; Sudhir Bhati of Symantec; and Ondrej Krehel of LIFARS Once a crude way for hackers to gain access to sensitive data, phishing attempts have now become increasingly sophisticated and more commonplace. Most concerning, this attack vector relies almost completely on human error, making it…

A Q&A with Benjamin Stone of the FBI It’s becoming an increasingly common story: Cyber perpetrators lock systems down with malware and then demand payment to release them. I asked Benjamin Stone, Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI’s Cyber Criminal Squad in Philadelphia, about ransomware and current conditions for cyber criminal activity.