Ransomware Report: Top Security Threat Expected to Continue Rising in 2017

Digital extortion by means of ransomware or a systems breach was one of the most prominent threats to consumers and businesses in 2016. It seems IBM Security’s prediction materialized quite excessively this past year.

Ransomware is a generic name for a family of computer bugs programmed to lock up endpoints, such as PCs, servers or mobile devices, in various ways. Ransomware encrypts data on the endpoint or revokes access to the endpoint itself, then asks the victim to pay a ransom to regain control of the endpoint. A ransomware attack can affect an individual or organization anywhere in the world.

Ransomware on the Rise

In just the first three months of 2016, U.S. companies shelled out more than $209 million in ransomware payments. That’s a dramatic 771 percent increase from the nearly $24 million companies reportedly spent in all of 2015. Cybercriminals are spreading these threats to a growing number of people and organizations.

According to IBM X-Force, the volume of spam quadrupled in the last 23 months. Even more worrying is the marked increase in ransomware attached to spam, the rate of which is up 6,000 percent. While the average ransomware attachment rate was 0.6 percent in 2015, it has boomed to nearly 40 percent in 2016.

It is no surprise that the FBI and international law enforcement have been issuing alerts about this threat. The FBI estimated that ransomware is on pace to become a $1 billion source of income for cybercriminals by the end of 2016, a number that is expected to continue to rise in 2017. In that regard, Europol recently warned that ransomware is one of the biggest online threats affecting consumers and businesses this year, and it is unlikely to slow down in the foreseeable future.

Critical Data in the Cross Hairs of Ransomware Attacks

Dear reader: this post and the paper it leads to are both part of my research work at IBM X-Force. You can go to the original post here and obtain the paper there as well.