Ransomware continues to cause severe disruptions and the loss of
critical data within business information systems. It is also
leveraging the use of certain providers and tools to increase its
devastation and profit. Consistent with what we noted
earlier in the year, malicious attackers continue to target
managed service providers (MSPs). An MSP is a business model that
remotely manages client information technology infrastructure
and/or end-user systems. MSPs may have hundreds or even thousands
of business clients. They have become targets of malicious hackers
because, through them, attackers have access to not just the MSP,
but to all of their clients' information systems.
From the attacker's perspective, rather than attack just one
business, why not target their MSP and successfully affect hundreds
or even thousands of businesses with the same effort? The sheer
size of these attacks are an order of magnitude larger and more
complex than previous large-scale
