With Locky leading the pack, the 35 strains of ransomware have earned cyber-criminals $25 million in the past two years.

A study was conducted by researchers from Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego, and the NYU Tandom School of Engineering. The numbers come from a study of bitcoin payments and blockchains. Broken down, the total reflects payments in the amount of $7.8 million for Locky, $6.9 million and $1.9 million for Cerber and CryptXXX.

Kylie McRoberts, a senior strategist with Google’s Safe Browsing team, prophesized that “Ransomware is here to stay and we will have to deal with for a long time to come.”

As far as earning profits, WannaCry and NotPetya were flops. They weren't truly ransomware but more wiper malware.

Although relatively new, Spora is an up-and-coming ransomware. It stands out from the crowd because it provides topnotch customer support with real-time chat and immunity packages to guarantee the victim will not be targeted again.

Google researchers are warning that the year to come will see more ransomware-as-a-service as well as imposters who will be trying to deliver wipe malware.

Source: Threat Post