BlackMatter Ransomware

The BlackMatter gang has joined the ranks of ransomware operations to develop a Linux encryptor that targets VMware's ESXi virtual machine platform. As more businesses move to this type of platform for their servers, we expect to continue to see ransomware developers focus primarily on Windows machines - but also create a dedicated Linux encryptor targeting ESXi.

The enterprise is increasingly moving to virtual machines for their servers for better resource management and disaster recovery.

With VMware ESXi being the most popular virtual machine platform, almost every enterprise-targeting ransomware operation has begun to release encryptors that specifically target its virtual machines.