Corporate America Found to be a Big Ransomware Target in 2016

Security company Malwarebytes has some pretty interesting statistics for Corporate America. In their 2017 State of Malware report it found that malware distribution rates were up by 267% from January to November of last year. Of those, 66% turned out to be ransomware at year-end. The primary targets for this ransomware were corporations in the United States.

The top lesson is that corporations need to be prepared for such attacks. They are not going away. In fact, it’s likely they will only increase. These types of cyberattacks are comparatively “easy” to perpetrate. This is believed to be due to the increase in ransomware-as-a-service products that are now provided as templates making it a very simple process to get money from victims into cyberthieves’ accounts. In the last financial quarter of 2016, there were nearly 400 different varieties of ransomware detected.

Doing regular backups of important data is not optional. Recent organizations that have been caught out by not having them and forced to pay to get their data back include law enforcement agencies and healthcare organizations. Some experts believe small businesses, schools, and infrastructure companies are now in the crosshairs as the next ransomware targets; frankly because they are less likely to have stringent cybersecurity processes in place and will pay up. And the reality is that doing backups is not such a difficult task. There are many products that make it very simple after the initial setup.

It isn’t recommended that ransom ever be paid to these criminals.  Unfortunately, because some do, it’s a successful way for the bad actors to make some good money. The Malwarebytes report also found that 81% of the ransomware detections were in corporations throughout North America and 49% of all ransomware detections were from European devices; whether corporate or consumer. However, Germany is a big target for ransomware authors too. It came in second behind the U.S. in impact from ransomware.

Ransomware is most certainly an increasing cyber threat throughout the world and it doesn’t discriminate based on consumer vs. corporate. Fifty one percent (51%) of the detections in Europe were either home or corporate devices.

Another interesting number in the report was that 60% of the variants seen within the last six months of 2016 were mere infants; less than one year old. However, perhaps the most surprising information from this report was the increase in variants was in Vatican City. Those increased by 1200%!