performed better than traditional AV. Moreover, all of the respondents who experienced severe impacts
from a malware attack indicated they now intend to replace their traditional AV product with advanced
defense technology.
Because attackers are continually perfecting their malware, organizations need to implement AI-powered
solutions that can identify and block attacks before they happen, and importantly, rollback ransomware
so vital systems do not need to be shut down. What we call ‘behavioral AI’ is the ability to really detect
something and protect from an attack. Not by looking at signatures or at static indicators of compromise,
it’s by actually looking at the nature of what it does.
But what should you do if disaster strikes? “To pay or not to pay” continues to be a tough decision in each
case, and Riviera Beach has set a dangerous precedent by showing cybercriminals that “ask and you
shall receive” is a reality. This will surely increase the frequency of municipality ransomware attacks,
especially on smaller cities who are even more bootstrapped than the Atlanta’s and Baltimore’s of the
world from a resource standpoint.
Riviera Beach’s decision to pay the ransom was surely influenced by Baltimore’s decision not to, which
has cost the city an estimated $18M in damages – exponentially more than the attacker’s ransom request.
But paying the ransom is not the answer either as recent research tells us 45% of U.S. companies hit
with a ransomware attack paid at least one ransom, but only 26% of these companies had their files
unlocked. Furthermore, organizations that paid the ransoms were targeted and attacked again 73% of
the time as attackers treat paying companies like ATMs.
The real answer is taking a proactive approach and updating legacy defense systems susceptible to
sophisticated attacks, in addition to allocating additional resources to security team staffing, training and
support.
The trend of repeated ransomware attacks on cities worldwide is far from over, and Riviera Beach’s
decision to pay may have made these susceptible targets even more enticing for the bad guys.