I never quite understood why these ransom-ware attackers restrict themselves to a small subset of the MSP's clients. E.g.: The SolarWinds attack affected only something like 1% of their customers, when it could easily have been 50% or more!
If you're evil and out for money, wouldn't you want to cast the widest net possible? Similarly, by encrypting a huge number of corporations concurrently, you'd "exhaust" the ability of a country to respond. There's only so many recovery specialists and IT contractors available to respond in an emergency. Encrypt only a few hundred targets and they can all recover. But if you encrypt a few hundred thousand, then there wouldn't be enough warm bodies available!
Thinking about it, I wonder if these attackers have set up permanent operations, with staff, payroll, and everything. Maybe they just to fly under the radar and collect a nice steady income instead of a risky but potentially huge one-time payoff...
If you're evil and out for money, wouldn't you want to cast the widest net possible? Similarly, by encrypting a huge number of corporations concurrently, you'd "exhaust" the ability of a country to respond. There's only so many recovery specialists and IT contractors available to respond in an emergency. Encrypt only a few hundred targets and they can all recover. But if you encrypt a few hundred thousand, then there wouldn't be enough warm bodies available!
Thinking about it, I wonder if these attackers have set up permanent operations, with staff, payroll, and everything. Maybe they just to fly under the radar and collect a nice steady income instead of a risky but potentially huge one-time payoff...