This year alone, the FBI predicted that the total loss to ransomware will reach a whopping US$1 billion. The ransomware business is booming, encouraging cybercriminals to expand their target base—from consumers to businesses, regardless of type and size.
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Apart from understanding the ransomware tactics and techniques beyond encryption, it is equally important to understand how they arrive in the environment. Our recent analysis reveals that majority of ransomware families can be stopped at the exposure layer—web and email. In fact, Trend Micro has blocked more than 66 million ransomware-related spam, malicious URLs, and threats from January to May 2016.
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How do companies regardless of size and industry prepare for ransomware attacks? A recent study revealed that businesses are considering saving up Bitcoins, just in case they get hit by these threats and can recover their confidential files in a short span of time. While we don’t recommend succumbing to the ransom payment as it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get your files back plus you’ll be prone to more ransomware attacks, we can’t also blame these large organizations and businesses for doing so.
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Trend Micro has released free tools—Trend Micro Crypto-Ransomware File Decryptor Tool and Trend Micro Lock Screen Ransomware Tool–to help users and organizations fight back against the dangers that ransomware pose. Systems affected with certain crypto-ransomware variants like TeslaCrypt and CryptXXX can use the File Decryptor Tool to retrieve their files that were ‘held hostage’ by these threats. If your system is infected with ransomware that has a lock-screen feature, our Lock Screen Ransomware Tool will help users gain access to their screen even though the malware is blocking normal and safe mode with networking. One of the primary goals of these tools is to prevent affected users and businesses from succumbing to the pressure and the demands of paying the ransom just to retrieve their confidential data.
Read MoreDuring the first quarter of 2015, we saw how ransomware variants have evolved to do more than just encrypt valuable system files. CryptoFortress targeted files in shared network drives while TeslaCrypt targeted gamers and mod users. Now we are seeing another feature rapidly gaining ground in the world of ransomware: the ability to increase the ransom price…
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