KNOWLEDGE SERIES

The Ransomware Pandemic

Parag Deodhar
Director – Cyber Security & Risk Management for APAC
VF Corporation

Parag Deodhar is the Director of Cyber Security & Risk Management for APAC for a US Multinational Company and is based in Hong Kong. Parag is a Chartered Accountant, Certified Information Systems Auditor from ISACA, US, and Certified Fraud Examiner from ACFE, US.  He has over 20 years of experience in Enterprise Risk Management, specializing in Operational Risk, Cyber Security, and Fraud Risk Management. He has held leadership roles with multinational companies like AXA Group, KPMG, Deutsche Bank, and Mahindra-British Telecom.

The global ransomware crisis has entered a new phase. Security researchers have uncovered and reported year-on-year attacks increasing at an exponential rate. As threat actors adopt new techniques and stronger tactics, the impact of ransomware attacks is more widespread and highlights weaknesses in a company’s security posture. Many high profile attacks reported involves underlying vulnerabilities and, security gaps for their occurrence, however there are several other factors for the explosion of these attacks.

The Webshell Attacks

Eddy Willems
Security Evangelist
G Data CyberDefence

Eddy Willems is a cyber security expert from Belgium. Currently he is a board member of 3 security industry organizations (EICAR, LSEC, AVAR), Global Security Officer and the resident Security Evangelist at G DATA CyberDefense AG. He studied computer sciences at IHB and VUB and started working as a systems analyst in 1984. He became a founding member of EICAR, one of Europe’s first IT security organizations, in 1991. Eddy is regularly quoted by national and international broadcast media since 1989. He published his first Dutch book ‘Cybergevaar’ in 2013 followed by an updated and expanded German and English translation ‘Cyberdanger’ in 2019. He is also co-author of the Dutch SF cyberthriller ‘Het Virus’ published in 2020. Eddy is a known inspiring speaker and is giving lectures and presentations worldwide for a very diverse audience from children to experts.

The recent spate of attacks on websites and web-facing services has focused attention on web shells that were used to install ransomware. Attacks using web shells have accelerated in 2020-21 and have raised two significant issues: the technical measures required to counter these attacks which are difficult to discover; and the wisdom in using Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to drive mitigation measures. This session addresses both concerns.