Michigan State University and Trusted CI Collaborate to Raise Awareness of Cybersecurity Threats to the Research Community
- Details
- Published on Monday, 09 August 2021 16:00
From Trusted CI:
Ransomware is a form of cybercrime that has risen to the same level of concern as terrorism by the U.S. Department of Justice. The United States suffered more than 65,000 ransomware attacks last year and victims paid $350 million in ransom, with an unknown amount of collateral costs due to lost productivity. Historically, research organizations have been largely ignored by cybercriminals since they do not typically have data that is easily sold or otherwise monetized. Unfortunately, since ransomware works by extorting payments from victims to get their own data back, research organizations are no longer immune to being targeted by criminals.
An event of this nature occurred in the Physics and Astronomy department at Michigan State University (MSU), which experienced a ransomware attack in May 2020, prompting MSU to engage with Trusted CI. The engagement ran from January 2021 to July 2021.