JBS meet* their maker: CybelAngel comment on ransom payment
June 2021 by CybelAngel
Following the news JBS paid their ransom fee, David Sygula, Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at CybelAngel shares the following words:
“Ransom payments are much more complicated than they look. For some companies, the cost of the ransom is lower than the cost of a recovery plan. But then, nothing prevents the attacker from attacking you again a few months later, despite the security hints they may give you after you pay the ransom. We do not recommend paying a ransom, given this only fosters ransomware gang’s activity and there’s never certainty that the data will be erased from the attackers’ servers.
From what we have seen, in most cases the ransom amount is negotiable, there are real people behind the chat, and of course for them it’s better to receive 50% of the original ransom amount than no amount at all - which appears to be the case with JBS, as the full ransom request was originally $22.5 million”.