![]() ![]() That’s possible because many ransomware attacks originate with exploit kits. Much of the time, “regular criminals” are participating. It’s not just sophisticated cybercriminals who are carrying out these attacks. And much like bees to nectar, cybercriminals go to what works, and ransomware seems to be working quite well these days. Sophisticated criminal networks are conducting industrial-scale, big-money attacks on all sizes and manner of organizations, including major enterprises. This huge spike is clearly not the work of a lone wolf working in a parent’s basement. In fact, our researchers tracked a 35-fold increase-3,500 percent!- in newly observed ransomware domains from January to March when compared to the first quarter of 2015. In simple terms, this indicates ransomware is working, so more and more criminals are jumping on the bandwagon. In our newly released Infoblox DNS Threat Index for the first quarter of 2016, Infoblox researchers found a dramatic increase in the creation of new ransomware infrastructure. High-profile Q1 ransomware incidents include the February 2016 attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles and the March 2016 breach at MedStar Health in Washington, D.C. The FBI recently revealed that ransomware victims in the United States reported costs of $209 million in the first quarter of 2016, compared to $24 million for all of 2015. Ransomware has been the talk of the security industry lately. I’m talking about ransomware attacks, where a malware infection is used to encrypt data and then demand payment for the decryption key. Today, we’re in the midst of another hard-to-solve ransom crisis, this time with a tech twist. Half the country mobilized as police forces tried to recover the child. According to the Smithsonian, a school librarian recently stumbled upon a note from 1874 that demanded $20,000 (the equivalent of about $400,000 today) for the safe return of a family’s four-year-old son who had been kidnapped from his Philadelphia neighborhood. ![]() There's even been an uptick in the harvesting of credit card numbers.I recently read an article about the first ransom note in American history. ![]() ![]() Her company has seen upticks in attacks involving remote-banking trojans, malware designed to steal credentials or access to financial accounts, along with phishing attacks that scam company officials into paying fake invoices or otherwise send criminals real money. She notes that many organizations, along with the US government, have stepped up their ransomware defenses recently, pushing cybercriminals toward other activities. "But I think those heydays might be over," she said, noting that criminals aren't seeing the same success they once did. Not that long ago, cybercriminals could demand $1 million to $3 million in payment after locking up a corporate computer system, notes Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of threat research at Proofpoint, an email security company. Some observers say crypto winter has put a permanent chill on ransomware attacks. He says the people behind the exchanges are still active in cybercrime even though the exchanges have "just vanished." "It's just like what we see when there are bank runs," said Dov Lerner, who runs Cybersixgill's security research. ![]()
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