Google Study Quantifies Ransomware Profits

[LASER_oneXM]

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Google Study Quantifies Ransomware Profits

LAS VEGAS—Over the past two years, 35 unique ransomware strains earned cybercriminals $25 million, with Locky and its many variants being the most profitable.

The data comes from a study debuted Wednesday at Black Hat by Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego, and the NYU Tandom School of Engineering. The study is unique in that it based calculations on bitcoin payments and blockchains. The result allowed researchers to create a precise picture of the ransomware ecosystem and who the top earners were, starting with Locky at $7.8 million in payments from victims, followed by Cerber and CryptXXX that earned $6.9 million and $1.9 million.

“Ransomware is here to stay and we will have to deal with for a long time to come,” said Kylie McRoberts, a senior strategist with Google’s Safe Browsing team.

Google researchers warned that in the year ahead ransomware-as-a-service was going to become even more prevalent and so will the number of impostors looking to cause more damage than extort money.