September 2, 2021

In a joint cybersecurity advisory released by the FBI and CISA, the federal agencies urged organizations not to abandon their vigilance against ransomware attacks on weekends and holidays.

The federal agencies noted that they “observed an increase in highly impactful ransomware attacks occurring on holidays and weekends–when offices are normally closed–in the United States, as recently as the Fourth of July holiday in 2021.”

To block the attacks, companies should take various precautions to protect their networks, including creating an offline backup of their data, avoiding suspicious links, securing and monitoring Remote Desktop Protocol endpoints, updating operating systems and software, using strong passwords, and using multi factor authentication.

The joint advisory also listed some of the ransomware gangs behind the most commonly reported attacks on the FBI last month, naming Conti, PYSA, LockBit, RansomEXX / Defray777, Zeppelin, Crysis / Dharma / Phobos as the biggest threats.

For more information, read the original story in Bleeping Computer.