A Single Ransomware Gang Made $121M In 2016

Ransomware Intel Security today released its McAfee Labs Threats Report: September 2016, which assesses the growing ransomware threat; surveys the “who and how” of data loss; explains the practical application of machine learning in cybersecurity; and details the growth of ransomware, mobile malware, macro malware, and other threats in Q2 2016.

A single ransomware cybermafia was able to collect $121 million in ransomware payments during the first half of this year, netting $94 million after expenses, according to the report.

"Ransomware has grown over the years, and in 2015 and 2016 we really saw a serious spike," said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security's McAfee Labs.

Weafer estimated that total ransomware revenues could be in the hundreds of millions. "And that's on the conservative side," he said. Total ransomware increased by 128 percent during the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. There were 1.3 million new ransomware samples recorded, the highest number since McAfee began tracking it.

Get those users awareness trained!

Another recently released report, this one from Bromium, confirms the most important key findings of the McAfee report. Surveying the past three years of attacks against businesses, Bromium's report ticks off a depressingly familiar list of dangerous trends in online threat landscape:

High profile data breaches are on the rise, with criminal gangs going the extra mile to penetrate corporate networks and pilfer valuable data
Crypto-ransomware attacks are on a steep rise, with dozens of new ransomware families making their debut in 2016 and Locky taking a market-leading position
Exploits (esp. those targeted at Adobe Flash) remain a problem, despite the limited success that software vendors have enjoyed in reducing the number of exploits in popular consumer applications
Threat actors continue to empoy social engineering tactics to infect victims via macro-based threats in Microsoft Word documents attached to phishing emails
Online criminals have proven flexible and resourceful in the face of law enforcement take-downs, quickly migrating their operations to newer exploit kits (Neutrino, RIG) as older ones disappear (Angler, Nuclear)
Attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex, making the job of defenders ever more difficult

Most importantly, however, Bromium's chief security architect, Rahul Kashyap, warns that although new attack methods are always being developed, not all new vulnerabilities are being exploited. Malicious actors will continue to rely on proven tactics such as social engineering and watering hole attacks, coupling them with constantly morphing malware to effectively "render AV useless."

The cybercrime threat landscape has exploded over the last 12 months, making it a must to step your users through effective security awareness training which includes frequent simulated attacks.

For instance, KnowBe4's integrated training and phishing platform allows you to send attachments with Word Docs with macros in them, so you can see which users open the attachments and then enable macros

See it for yourself and get a live, one-on-one demo.