70,000 Cases of Ransomware Spotted in One Week
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 12/15/2015 05:42 AM
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Ransomware ramps up due to the cybercriminals expecting people to have a little more available holiday cash.
Researchers at iSheriff spotted more than 70,000 incidents of cybercriminals attempting to infect users with cryptographic ransomware variants this week.
Most of these attacks are being sent via phishing emails. The targets are unprotected Windows systems.
Mark Parker, senior product manager at iSheriff, said the sophisticated timing of the attacks appear to be “almost business savvy” because the attackers are counting on a lot of people having money during this time of year.
“The victims are generally busier this time of year, and due to end of year bonuses, the maturation of holiday savings bonds, and access to holiday savings accounts, users are more likely to have a little more cash on hand to pay the ransom,” Parker said.
The recommendations are to always be leery of unsolicited email attachments. Keeping your end-point AV software updated and making backups of important files.
Researchers at iSheriff said cryptographic malware has generated more than $60 million in revenue in one year as a result of victims choosing to pay the criminals to unlock files.
Source: SCMagazine
Researchers at iSheriff spotted more than 70,000 incidents of cybercriminals attempting to infect users with cryptographic ransomware variants this week. Most of these attacks are being sent via phishing emails. The targets are unprotected Windows systems.
Mark Parker, senior product manager at iSheriff, said the sophisticated timing of the attacks appear to be “almost business savvy” because the attackers are counting on a lot of people having money during this time of year.
“The victims are generally busier this time of year, and due to end of year bonuses, the maturation of holiday savings bonds, and access to holiday savings accounts, users are more likely to have a little more cash on hand to pay the ransom,” Parker said.
The recommendations are to always be leery of unsolicited email attachments. Keeping your end-point AV software updated and making backups of important files.
Researchers at iSheriff said cryptographic malware has generated more than $60 million in revenue in one year as a result of victims choosing to pay the criminals to unlock files.
Source: SCMagazine
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