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The Gentlemen uses a double-extortion model. In addition to encrypting files, the ransomware can exfiltrate data from compromised systems. This puts additional pressure on victims to pay the ransom to restore access to their files and prevent the stolen data from being publicly leaked.

See how users are turning to the AI assistant in Acronis Cyber Platform to get answers and complete tasks using plain-language prompts.

An AI tool that produces only text carries roughly the risk of a badly worded email. A tool that can reach into systems and change things carries the risk of whatever those systems hold. The security question is not how clever the model is. It is which systems and data the model is authorized to access.

Widely trusted tools like ConnectWise ScreenConnect and AnyDesk may be abused by attackers, and when left unattended, they can present a problem: Their legitimate prevalence makes attacker activity harder to spot, and any vulnerabilities affecting them can turn a trusted platform into an infection vector.

Patch prioritization in SMB environments often starts with software vendor severity. Critical patches go first, then high-severity patches, then everything else. Severity answers only one question: How risky is it to leave a vulnerability unresolved? It says nothing about how hard the fix is to deploy, how often it causes issues or how much testing it needs.

Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) has identified an ongoing campaign delivering a previously undocumented custom backdoor against Afghan telecom providers and South Asian critical infrastructure organizations. The backdoor, tracked as PATCHCORD, is a compiled C/C++ implant delivered through sector-specific lures, including fake VPN installers impersonating Afghan Telecom (AFTEL) and telecom management tools.