Who are the ransomware gangs wreaking havoc on the world’s biggest companies? | Renee Dudley

It's the defining cyber crime of the 2020s, and hackers are only just beginning to exploit its potential to make money and sow mayhem

In the past year, some of the UK's most recognised institutions, from the Guardian to Royal Mail, have been hit with the defining cyber crime of our time: ransomware. Hackers locking up computer networks and demanding payment for the keys to restore them have snarled operations and left victims scrambling to recover.

Nearly every sector of society, including healthcare, business, government and education, has now been targeted by ransomware gangs making demands that stretch into the tens of millions. Ironically, just a few months before the release of my own book on ransomware, my publisher was hit with a bruising attack, leaving my co-author and I unable to reach our editors via phone or email.

Renee Dudley is a technology reporter at ProPublica and co-author of The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World From Cybercrime