In 2023 ransomware attacks rose 70% from a year earlier, to 4,611, according to the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity research and training organisation. Since March 2023, Akira alone has victimised more than 350 organisations and extorted an estimated US$42mil (RM185.54mil), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and a Bloomberg analysis found. — Image by Kerfin7 on Freepik
The black-and-white message flickering across computer screens sparked panic at Knights of Old, a 158-year-old UK delivery company: “If you’re reading this, it means the internal infrastructure of your company is fully or partially dead.”
Knights’ network for managing trucks was down. So was the system for booking payments. From 2,000 miles away, a criminal, Russia-linked hacking gang known as Akira had sabotaged the computers at Knights of Old and two related trucking companies.
