PRESS: Number of virus-encoder attacks on Russian firms triples

MOSCOW, May 12 (PRIME) -- The number of attacks with virus-encoders on Russian companies has tripled since the beginning of March as hackers take sides in the Ukraine conflict and seek public response rather than profit, business daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.

In 2022, hackers using encoders, which are ransomware-type programs, are switching from massive mailouts to targeted attacks and more sophisticated software, according to a research by antivirus maker Kaspersky, whose experts paid attention to the change of the technique of the attacks.

Group-IB told the daily that after February 24, the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Russia has seen the number of virus-encoders attacks triple.

“Shortly after the start of the conflict, some groups of encoders chose their side, as a result, there are attacks conducted in support of Russia or Ukraine,” Dmitry Galov, a cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky, said.

According to Kaspersky, hackers using encoders have begun consolidating them in single platforms to damage as many systems as possible with the same software, and they create codes that can be exploited in several operating systems at a time.

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