New Report Details Extent of Ransomware Pandemic

Kaspersky Labs has released a detailed report outlining the current state of global ransomware.

The good news is that Kaspersky Labs registered less ransomware attacks this year than last year. In 2017, there were about 950,000 attacks against Kaspersky Lab users compared to 1.5 million in 2016. What’s more, the number of new ransomware “families” fell from 62 percent in 2016 to 38 in 2017.

Still, the number of ransomware modifications almost doubled this year, from 54,000 in 2016 to 96,000.

Among those targeted by ransomware, 26.2 percent were business users And 65 percent of businesses that were hit with ransomware in 2017 lost access to a significant amount, or all of their data.

 As such, all businesses should be taking active measures to increase their chances of avoiding ransomware complications.

Of note is the fact that 36 percent of people who were attacked paid the ransom. And 1 in 6 people who paid a ransom were unable to recover their information. Hackers, in other words, often delete files regardless of whether they actually receive payment.

Remember: If your phone or computer gets infected with ransomware, contact law enforcement, your IT department or a computer specialist instead of taking action yourself. If you try and handle the situation, you could just make it worse.

Looking ahead into 2018 and beyond, ransomware won’t be going away any time soon. The best thing you can do is educate yourself about how to avoid an attack, and know what to do if you get hit.