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Flashpoint releases a new ransomware prediction model
Fri, 11th Nov 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Flashpoint, the firm providing risk intelligence, has announced an industry-first ransomware prediction model that allows vulnerability management teams to improve remediation efforts and prevent cyber extortion events with VulnDB, the most comprehensive vulnerability database available on the market.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, financial institutions filed US$1.2 billion in ransomware-related costs in 2021, nearly double the amount reported by banks in 2020. 

To help organisations proactively prevent a ransomware attack, Flashpoint's latest capability enables vulnerability management teams identify the likelihood that a particular vulnerability could be used in a future ransomware attack.

“The risk of falling victim to a ransomware attack can be radically reduced with the right intelligence,” says Jake Kouns, General Manager, Flashpoint. 

“Our ransomware prediction algorithm, coupled with our vulnerability intelligence, is a must-have for security teams that want to remediate vulnerabilities that could help them get in front of a potentially destructive ransomware attack.”

Flashpoint helps organisations protect their most critical assets, infrastructure, and stakeholders from security risks such as cyber threats, ransomware, fraud, physical threats, and more. 

Leading security practitioners, including physical and corporate security, cyber threat intelligence (CTI), vulnerability management, and vendor risk management teams, rely on the Flashpoint Intelligence Platform, comprising open source (OSINT) and closed intelligence, to proactively identify and mitigate risk and stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.

Flashpoint delivers contextual and actionable intelligence to automatically detect, prioritise, and remediate emerging cyber and physical risks.

Flashpoint intelligence combines data, insights, and automation to identify risks and stop threats for cyber, fraud, and physical security teams. It protects an organization from cybercrime, emerging malware, and hacktivism.

Meanwhile, VulnDB covers over 300,000 known vulnerabilities in end-user software and third-party libraries and dependencies, including over 96,000 vulnerabilities missed by CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and NVD (National Vulnerability Database). 

VulnDB is the most comprehensive vulnerability database and timely source of intelligence available. It allows organisations to search for and be alerted to the latest vulnerabilities in end-user software and third-party libraries and dependencies.

Flashpoint's ransomware prediction model determines a Ransomware Likelihood rating for each of those vulnerabilities, including newly disclosed issues. It is derived from various factors, including exploit availability, attack type, impact, disclosure patterns, and other characteristics captured by VulnDB.

This intelligence is critical to vulnerability management teams, who often need more resources and context to efficiently prioritise and patch tens of thousands of vulnerabilities disclosed yearly.

Earlier this year, Flashpoint acquired Echosec Systems, a provider of open-source intelligence (OSINT) and publicly available information (PAI) for national security, public safety, and enterprise customers. 

With this acquisition, the risk intelligence firm has expanded its OSINT capabilities to drive on-the-ground situational awareness, executive protection, geopolitical risk assessments, counterterrorism, misinformation and disinformation identification and response, and crisis response.