Ransomware
Malware that encrypts systems and demands payment for decryption keys. Healthcare, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure organizations are the highest-impact targets due to operational disruption consequences.
What is Ransomware?
Malware that encrypts systems and demands payment for decryption keys. Healthcare, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure organizations are the highest-impact targets due to operational disruption consequences.
Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts an organization's files or systems and demands payment for the decryption key. What began as an opportunistic criminal enterprise targeting individual users has evolved into a sophisticated, industrialized threat against enterprises, hospitals, utilities, and critical infrastructure — with individual attacks causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Modern ransomware attacks are rarely simple encryption events. They typically follow a multi-stage pattern: initial access (phishing, vulnerable public-facing services, compromised credentials), lateral movement through the network, data exfiltration for double-extortion leverage, and finally mass encryption. The encryption phase is often the last step in an intrusion that has been ongoing for weeks.
Healthcare and critical infrastructure have become primary targets because their operational dependencies on connected systems create maximum pressure to pay. A hospital that cannot access patient records or operate infusion pumps faces a different calculus than a company that loses a week of data. This makes the visibility and containment capabilities of asset security — knowing what's on the network, monitoring for anomalous behavior, and enforcing segmentation — directly relevant to ransomware defense.
Key Facts
- Healthcare saw a 94% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks in 2021–2022
- The average ransomware incident costs $4.62M when including downtime, response, and recovery
- Connected OT and IoMT devices are increasingly targeted as propagation vectors in ransomware attacks
- Ransomware operators spend an average of 3–8 weeks inside a network before triggering the encryption payload
How ORDR Addresses Ransomware
ORDR reduces ransomware risk by ensuring attackers have fewer lateral movement options. Complete asset visibility prevents unknown devices from hiding in the network. Behavioral monitoring detects the reconnaissance and lateral movement phases that precede encryption. Automated segmentation responses can isolate compromised devices before ransomware propagates to adjacent systems, including OT and IoMT environments.
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