CryptoWall, Locky, and Cerber Are Today's Top 3 Ransomware Threats

May 30, 2016 9:39:15 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

New Strain Of Cerber Ransomware Being Offered As RaaS On Russian Hacking Forum

May 30, 2016 7:04:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Microsoft Alert: ZCryptor Ransomware With Worm Feature

May 27, 2016 9:56:04 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Massive Locky Ransomware Campaign Targets Amazon Users

May 25, 2016 3:20:34 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

[ALERT] Cerber Ransomware Strain Adds DDoS Bot Causing More Damage

May 22, 2016 2:12:49 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

TeslaCrypt Gives Up and Releases Master Decryption Key

May 19, 2016 4:52:39 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

This Has Been A Crazy Week In Ransomware

May 14, 2016 3:04:08 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Ransomware and CEO Fraud Dominate 2016

May 13, 2016 11:31:13 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

New Petya Comes Loaded with Double-Barrel Ransomware Attack

May 13, 2016 10:04:42 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Congress warned about cybersecurity after attempted ransomware attack on House

May 11, 2016 1:20:13 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

[ALERT] 2016 Is A Ransomware Horror Show. Here's The Roundup Of 32 New Strains!

Apr 30, 2016 10:21:40 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Scary New CryptXXX Ransomware Also Steals Your Bitcoins

Apr 23, 2016 4:28:53 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

A Short History & Evolution of Ransomware

Apr 17, 2016 4:44:24 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

CTB-Locker Ransomware Uses Blockchain to Store & Deliver Decryption Keys

Apr 16, 2016 4:48:21 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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, ...

Ransomware On Pace To Be A 2016 $1 Billion Dollar Business

Apr 16, 2016 10:34:21 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

They Shoot Files, Don't They? Jigsaw Ransomware Does...

Apr 14, 2016 11:07:29 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Pinellas Man Falls Victim To Ransomware

Apr 14, 2016 10:00:00 AM By TAMPA BAY, FL

Pinellas County resident Scott Germak thought he was getting free Tampa Bay Rays tickets based on a phishing email that appeared to be a legitimate message coming from GTE Financial, his ...

The Future Of Ransomware: CryptoWorms?

Apr 12, 2016 2:52:36 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Cisco's Talos Labs researchers had a look into the future and described how ransomware would evolve. It's a nightmare. They created a sophisticated framework for next-gen ransomware that ...

CryptoHost Ransomware Locks Files In A Password Protected RAR File

Apr 10, 2016 6:42:50 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new ransomware strain called CryptoHost was discovered, which claims that it encrypts your data and then demands a ransom of .33 bitcoins to get your files back (~140 USD at the current ...

Maktub Ransomware Knows Where You Live

Apr 9, 2016 7:58:27 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

It's happening in the UK today, and you can expect it in America tomorrow [correction- it's already happening today]. The bad guys in Eastern Europe are often using the U.K. as their beta ...

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