The Ransomware Threat
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might receive an innocuous looking email – it might even look like it’s from your boss – asking you to click on a link. Watch out! It could be the start of a ransomware attack. Over the last year cybersecurity experts say that the number of ransomware attacks has grown exponentially. During the pandemic lockdowns criminal hackers have been able to exploit the vulnerabilities inherent in the increase in homeworking to infiltrate computer systems, shut them down and then demand a ransom to restore services, or even to stop publishing data they’ve stolen. Along with the increased volume of attacks, the level of ransom demands has grown. Using new technology and techniques, this has become a lucrative business for international criminal gangs, with individuals, businesses, schools, hospitals and charities all targeted.
Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room to discuss ransomware attacks are:
Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs and Editor of Chatham House's Journal of Cyber Policy Sadie Creese, Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Oxford Geoff White, investigative journalist and author and presenter of the BBC’s podcast series, The Lazarus Heist Susan Landau, Bridge Professor of Cyber Security and Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, Tufts University Producers: John Murphy, Sally Abrahams and Imogen Serwotka Sound Engineer: James Beard Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.4 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:09.5 | We're in a room where you, me and the top experts come together to understand the great issues of the day. |
| 0:15.6 | Inside this week's 28 minutes, there have been a number of high-profile attacks recently against infrastructure and hospitals |
| 0:22.3 | with cyber criminals turning ransomware into a lucrative business. So what exactly is ransomware? |
| 0:30.3 | And can we defeat it? |
| 0:41.8 | You're the first into the office. |
| 0:44.9 | Maybe you work for a large company or perhaps a hospital. |
| 0:46.1 | You log in. |
| 0:50.3 | And up comes a message, possibly illustrated with a skull and crossbones, |
| 0:53.4 | informing you that your computers are now useless. |
| 0:56.0 | Everything on them is inaccessible, and they're going to stay that way until you pay a fee. What you're experiencing is a ransomware |
| 1:02.2 | attack. It happened recently to the Irish Health Service and to an important oil pipeline |
| 1:07.2 | in America. So-called ransomware attacks are becoming more frequent and more |
| 1:11.8 | expensive to deal with. So what exactly is ransomware and can we defeat it? Step into |
| 1:17.9 | the briefing room and let's find out. First I want to know exactly what a |
| 1:25.5 | ransomware attack is, how it's conducted, and what the victim |
| 1:29.3 | experiences. Joining me in the briefing room is Emily Taylor, the CEO of the Cyber Intelligence |
| 1:34.6 | Consultancy, Oxford Information Labs, and editor of Chatham House's Journal of Cyber Policy. |
| 1:41.0 | Emily Taylor, let's start with the basics. What is a ransomware attack? |
| 1:46.0 | Well, ransomware is a type of malware which encrypts a victim's files. |
| 1:53.0 | So that means it's really, in simple terms, a form of extortion. |
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