Security Awareness Training Blog

Ransomware Blog

Keeping you updated on the latest ransomware attack vectors, strains, decryptors, families and trends to help you avoid becoming infected.

[ALERT] 93% of phishing attacks now have ransomware payloads

Oh boy. Things have gotten from bad to worse in an awful hurry. I remember the first time I reported on ransomware in the CyberheistNews Issue Feb 11, 2014, where an attorney's office ...
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[INFOGRAPHIC] Don't Be The Victim Of A Cyberheist

We have created a new infographic for your users, as part of your ongoing security awareness training program. It's a few good reminders how to stay safe online, and to keep their ...
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Top Ransomware campaign managers make 13 times more than avg Russian wages

A short report by Flashpoint gives us some insight into a recent ransomware campaign, which so far has generated a serious amount of profit considering it takes little effort to operate.
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Ransomware domains increased 3500% in Q1 2016

There has been a whopping 3500% increase in ransomware domains in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the last quarter of 2015. Those are the highlights of a new report by network ...
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CryptoWall, Locky, and Cerber Are Today's Top 3 Ransomware Threats

US cyber-security firm Fortinet reports that, between April 1, 2016, and May 15, 2016, the top five most prevalent ransomware families were in this order: CryptoWall (41.04%), Locky ...
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New Strain Of Cerber Ransomware Being Offered As RaaS On Russian Hacking Forum

Security Researchers at Forcepoint discovered that a Russian hacking forum on the dark web is selling the Cerber ransomware as a RaaS (Ransom-as-a-service). This is a new form since ...
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Microsoft Alert: ZCryptor Ransomware With Worm Feature

Microsoft released an alert about a new ransomware strain called ZCryptor, which works like a worm and spreads via removable and network drives. The MalwareForMe blog reported this first ...
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Massive Locky Ransomware Campaign Targets Amazon Users

Comodo Threat Research Labs just posted an alert that a massive campaign of phishing emails have been sent with a spoofed "from" address: auto-shipping@amazon.com. The subject is “Your ...
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[ALERT] Cerber Ransomware Strain Adds DDoS Bot Causing More Damage

Excuse my French, but Holy S#!+, some ransomware developers have created a new evil way to monetize their operations by adding a DDoS component to their malicious payloads. Security ...
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TeslaCrypt Gives Up and Releases Master Decryption Key

Larry Abrams from the Bleepingcomputer site noted: "In a surprising end to TeslaCrypt, the developers shut down their ransomware and released the master decryption key. Over the past few ...
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This Has Been A Crazy Week In Ransomware

That's what Larry Abrams from Bleepingcomputer started out with yesterday, and he was right! We have had six new ransomware strains, one new RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) and one major ...
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Ransomware and CEO Fraud Dominate 2016

An interesting Q1-16 threat report from the folks at Proofpoint. Every day, they analyze more than 1 billion email messages, hundreds of millions of social media posts, and more than 150 ...
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New Petya Comes Loaded with Double-Barrel Ransomware Attack

A new twist on the Petya ransomware and how it now uses a backup ransomware attack. Remember, Petya is a new type of ransomware that doesn’t encrypt specific files but makes the entire ...
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Congress warned about cybersecurity after attempted ransomware attack on House

In an email provided to TechCrunch, the House technology service desk warned representatives of increased ransomware attacks on the House network. The email warns that attackers are ...
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[ALERT] 2016 Is A Ransomware Horror Show. Here's The Roundup Of 32 New Strains!

If you've been in the IT trenches over the past year, you've probably noticed the announcements of new strains of ransomware are accelerating. The research team at Proofpoint just ...
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Scary New CryptXXX Ransomware Also Steals Your Bitcoins

Now here's a new hybrid nasty that does a multitude of nefarious things. Proofpoint researchers found that it was built by the same cyber mafia that's behind the Reveton malware. A few ...
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A Short History & Evolution of Ransomware

Ransomware attacks cause downtime, data loss, possible intellectual property theft, and in certain industries a ransomware attack is now looked at as a possible data breach. Ransomware is ...
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CTB-Locker Ransomware Uses Blockchain to Store & Deliver Decryption Keys

A mysterious update in the behavior of the CTB-Locker ransomware strain alerted security researchers to pull some strings and see what was going on. The CTB-Locker ransomware family, ...
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Ransomware On Pace To Be A 2016 $1 Billion Dollar Business

CNN Money reports about new estimates from the FBI that show the costs of ransomware have reached an all-time high this year. Threat actors made $209 million in the first quarter of 2016 ...
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They Shoot Files, Don't They? Jigsaw Ransomware Does...

By Eric Howes, KnowBe4 Principal Lab Researcher. A few days ago our friends at BleepingComputer.com announced the discovery of a new form of ransomware, which they dubbed Jigsaw ...
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