Ransomware Attacks Jump 500% as Businesses Continue to Be the Prime Target

Malwarebyte’s latest Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques report exposes some trends indicating that 2019 is looking to be the year of the cyberthreat for businesses.

Businesses want to believe they are secure against cyber threats, despite the ever-changing landscape of players, methods, and techniques involved in cyberattacks. But, according to the latest data from Malwarebytes, that cybercriminal landscape is trying harder than ever to make your organization a victim.

According to the report:

• Detections of threats over Q4 2018 in businesses rose 7% while consumer detections dropped 40%
• Business detections year-over-year have increased 235%
• Ransomware detections are up 500% over this time last year
• Mac malware detections have increased 60% over last quarter
• Vicious malware variant Emotet has seen a 200% increase in detections over the previous quarter

All these increases come at a time where, according to the report, 96% of individuals are concerned about their personal data being protected online. With so much concern around organizations protecting their customer’s data, it’s imperative that organizations have layered security in place to stop the rising flood of attacks.

The uptick in attacks across the board means the likelihood of an attack getting through to your users is also increasing. That means it’s absolutely necessary to make the user be a part of your security strategy by enrolling them in continual Security Awareness Training.

The data shows attackers are getting serious and focused on making your organization their victim. Shoring up all aspects of your security – including your users – is going to be key to survive.

Bad guys are constantly coming out with new malware versions to evade detection. That’s why we’ve updated our Ransomware Simulated tool “RanSim” to include a new cryptomining scenario!

This new cryptomining scenario simulates a Monero cryptocurrency-mining operation on the local machine. Monero mining is the most popular cryptocurrency mined by real-world malware and takes a lot of CPU and GPU cycles to process the data necessary to generate the currencies.

Try KnowBe4’s NEW Ransomware Simulator tool and get a quick look at the effectiveness of your existing network protection against the latest threats.

RanSim will simulate 13 ransomware infection scenarios and 1 cryptomining infection scenario to show you if a workstation is vulnerable to infection.

Here's how RanSim works:

• 100% harmless simulation of real ransomware and cryptomining infection scenarios
• Does not use any of your own files
• Tests 14 different types of infection scenarios
• Just download the install and run it
• Results in a few minutes!

This is a complementary tool and will take you 5 minutes max. RanSim may give you some insights about your endpoint security you never expected!

Download the new Ransim here:

https://info.knowbe4.com/ransomware-simulator-tool-1