The Current State of Ransomware

Attacks are up. Payments are down.
Attacks - The Bad News
- Reports from Infosec Security magazine indicate that European small and midsized businesses paid out almost $100 Million last year to recover files encrypted by ransomware.
- Respected anti malware vendor MalwareBytes tracked a 90% increase in the number of detected ransomware attacks.
- The SophosLabs 2018 Malware forecast concludes "it’s a fair bet that Android and Windows will continue to
be heavily targeted with ransomware and other malware, given the success attackers have had thus far" Sophos Forecast (pdf) - According to Datto (one of our backup suppliers) more companies are reporting attacks and fewer are paying ransoms.
- Datto reports that 4.5 percent of European SMBs were victims of malware between 2016 and 2017. 21 percent of the victims opted to pay the ransom in 2017. Of those victims who paid 18 percent didn't get their data back!
Note: Portions of this article were republished with permission from Sophos Group PLC - sophos are one of our majojor cyber security partners.
Update 28/04/2018
Here is a link to an article by the same author on the Computer Troubleshooters New Zealand website, with guidelines on how to decrypt data that may have been locked up by Ransomware.
Related Services:
Cyber Security
Managed Services
Business Backup Solutions
Sophos Advanced Email Protection
Has Your Email Been Breached?
Are You A Sitting Duck?
Related NZ Government Publications:
CERT NZ | Ransomware
Last updated: 15/10/2022
Payments - The Good News
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