Ariel Parnes, COO and Co-Founder at Mitiga, believes that this may signify a new era of psychological operations among high-level ransomware groups: “Psychological operations (PsyOps) in cybercrime are strategic tactics that manipulate a target’s perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and behavior to achieve specific goals. These operations have long been a tool for cybercriminals, used to instill fear, urgency, and confusion, often to expedite ransom demands or disrupt operations. The recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule, requiring publicly traded companies to disclose material cyberattacks within four days, has given attackers even more incentive to use PsyOps.