The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) had previously launched the “Fight Ransomware” campaign to raise the awareness of SMEs against ransomware, featuring a dedicated Facebook page to introduce the basic information of ransomware, defence tools and useful resources to help the public defence from ransomware attacks.

In recent years, ransomware attacks have evolved and become more frequent worldwide, including Hong Kong, wreaking extensive havoc. Hackers have continued to develop new techniques or even changed their operation model in a bid to maximise the amount and chance of ransom payments. Human-operated ransomware, ransomware as a service (RaaS) and multiple extortion are some of these examples. The average ransomware payment stood at US$570,000 in the first half of 2021, up 82% from last year’s average payment of US$312,000 ^[1]. It is one of the biggest cyber threats faced by companies and organisations nowadays.

“Fight Ransomware” Webpage

To keep pace with the changes in ransomware attacks, HKCERT recently consolidated the ransomware attack techniques, prevention and handling procedures to create a new dedicated “Fight Ransomware” webpage. This webpage includes:

1. Ransomware Basic
   1. What is Ransomware?
   2. Infection Methods
   3. Ransomware's Operation
   4. Prevention
   5. Incident Handling
2. Ransomware Blogs published by HKCERT
3. Useful Tools
4. Resources

A series of infographics are also created for awareness education purpose. Users can download the graphic for in-house awareness training or cyber security promotion activities. We hope this “Fight Ransomware” page can draw public attention on the severity of ransomware attacks with actionable procedures from HKCERT when facing ransomware.

Reference:

[1] https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/average-ransomware-payment-hits-570000-in-h1-2021