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In April 2020,  its entire network was infected with Maze ransomware. All servers were encrypted and the company’s work-at-home capabilities were compromised. 

On May 7, Cognizant said it had “fully recovered from the ransomware infection and restored most of its services”. Loss revenue and long-term cost of the is said to be $70-$100 million including legal, consulting, and remediation costs.

• ISS World

In February 2020, a ransomware attack shut down ISS World, a Denmark-based facilities management company. It is the largest facility services management company in the world. 

During the attack, workers lost access to systems and email. By the end of March, ISS was able to relaunch most business-critical systems but some are yet to be restored or rebuilt. The cost of the remediation is expected to be up to $75 million.

• Dubsmash, Armour Games, Share This, etc...

In February 2019,  it had been reported that 16 company websites have been hacked from 2017 to 2019, through their websites, by the same hacker group. 

Some 617 million online account details were stolen. The data was listed for sale on the dark web. 

The data breach included Dubsmash (162 million records), MyFitnessPal (151 million records), MyHeritage (92 million records), ShareThis (41 million records), HauteLook (28 million records), Animoto (25 million records), EyeEm (22 million records), 8fit (20 million records), Whitepages (18 million records), Fotolog (16 million records), 500px (15 million records), Armor Games (11 million records), BookMate (8 million records), CoffeeMeetsBagel (6 million records), Artsy (1 million records), and DataCamp (700,000 records).

Data has become more weaponized with the use of ransomware. There are more ransomware operators than ever before. Groups like Maze, Sodinokibi, DoppelPaymer, Nemty, Nefilim, CLOP, and Sekhmet are attacking companies daily throughout the world. 

Hackers are also targeting governmental, educational, and health-care entities. 

In 2019, the U.S. was hit by ransomware attacks impacting 948 public and government agencies and the estimated costs were over $7.5 billion, according to a December 2019 Emsisoft report. 

This 2020 so far, ransomware accounts for over one-third of all cyber attacks. Malicious threat actors are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic as organizations reconfigure staffing and supply chains and offer more digital experiences. 

Microsoft and its international partners recently stopped a dangerous and massive hacking operation that could compromise the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.