How watch maker Garmin acted too late to prevent a ransomware attack

Ransomware attacks these days are much like bulldozers operated by the schoolyard bully: they find your weak spot and relentlessly exploit it for their own gain. Fox-IT’s research uncovered that hacker group EvilCorp is building a new destructive tool for ransom ware attacks, called WastedLocker.

The group’s name behind the WastedLocker, EvilCorp, may make you think of Hollywood hackers, but hiding behind this is a ruthless Russian crew that has stolen over $100 million with its cybercrime schemes. Once they started extorting organizations with their ransomware they became so successful, the U.S. Treasury put sanctions on them.

Garmin – known for fitness apps and digital watches- got hit by WastedLocker: facing business outages and paying a 10 million ransom sum, reportedly within days. Unfortunately, Garmin’s timing was off, since Fox-IT’s free blacklist to keep WastedLocker out of your business was already available a month prior.

Surf to the free blacklist to keep WastedLocker out of your business.
Read more about the technical details of WastedLocker.
The New York Times article about WastedLocker.