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Cape Town - Malicious software able to hold computers to ransom has climbed in the first three months on 2016, a security company has found.
Kaspersky Lab detected a 14% increase in ransomware as cyber criminals turned to private users and corporations for easy cash.
“One of the reasons why ransomware has become so popular lies in the simplicity of the business model used by cybercriminals. Once the ransomware gets into the users’ system there is almost no chance of getting rid of it without losing personal data,” said Aleks Gostev, chief security expert in the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT).
The company detected 2 900 new ransomware modifications and blocked 372 602 attacks, 17% of which were targeted at the corporate sector.
While Locky (Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Locky) was the most popular ransomware of 2016, a more advanced Petya has emerged. It is able to encrypt data as well as overwrite a hard drive’s master boot record, leaving a PC unable to boot.
READ: Here’s how ransomware hits SA
“Another threatening trend is the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model where cyber criminals pay a fee for the propagation of malware or promise a percentage of the ransom paid by an infected user,” said Gostev.
The most popular ransomware programs in 2016 are Teslacrypt, responsible for 58.4% of attacks, CTB-Locker (23.5%), and Cryptowall (3.4%).
Ransomware typically propagates through spam emails and cyber crooks usually demand payment in the form of bitcoins, increasing the amount over a period of days.
READ: How ransomware has cost some Fin24 users thousands
Kaspersky also revealed that malicious advertising programs or adware threats on mobile devices now make up the leading method of attack at 42.7%.
The company said that 4 146 new mobile Trojans were detected, almost twice as many as the last quarter of 2015.
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