- Apr 5, 2014
- 6,008
The first six months of 2016 saw the emergence of 79 new types of ransomware, a 172% increase compared to the whole of last year, says Trend Micro.
Ransomware is one of the most prevalent threats today – it allows attackers to block access to a computer or device until the victim pays the ransom.
But now businesses and large enterprises are becoming the prime target, as companies are more likely to pay a huge ransom to regain access to their precious data, says Trend Micro APAC managing director Dhanya Thakkar.
Thakkar says that the increase in ransomware attacks on businesses is also due to the fact that businesses are more willing to pay than individuals, and tend not to report breaches to avoid loss of reputation.
He says the FBI reported that businesses have paid US$209mil (RM858mil) in ransom just for first three months of this year.
“The threat landscape is constantly evolving and it changes the way businesses operate today,” he says.
Besides ransomware, companies should also be on the look out for another rising threat – BEC or business e-mail compromise.
BEC attacks usually use social engineering to trick employees into authorising fund transfers out of the organisation using legit looking e-mails.
Over 22,000 victims suffered losses of more than US$3bil (RM12.3bil) globally between January 2015 and June 2016, says Thakkar.
The attack is mostly prevalent in the United States, Britain, Hong Kong, Japan and Brazil. Locally, almost 8,000 BEC attacks were reported in the first half of 2016.
To minimise the risk of ransomware and BEC, Trend Micro has a number of solutions, including Smart Protection Suite and Deep Discovery Inspector.
Ransomware is one of the most prevalent threats today – it allows attackers to block access to a computer or device until the victim pays the ransom.
But now businesses and large enterprises are becoming the prime target, as companies are more likely to pay a huge ransom to regain access to their precious data, says Trend Micro APAC managing director Dhanya Thakkar.
Thakkar says that the increase in ransomware attacks on businesses is also due to the fact that businesses are more willing to pay than individuals, and tend not to report breaches to avoid loss of reputation.
He says the FBI reported that businesses have paid US$209mil (RM858mil) in ransom just for first three months of this year.
“The threat landscape is constantly evolving and it changes the way businesses operate today,” he says.
Besides ransomware, companies should also be on the look out for another rising threat – BEC or business e-mail compromise.
BEC attacks usually use social engineering to trick employees into authorising fund transfers out of the organisation using legit looking e-mails.
Over 22,000 victims suffered losses of more than US$3bil (RM12.3bil) globally between January 2015 and June 2016, says Thakkar.
The attack is mostly prevalent in the United States, Britain, Hong Kong, Japan and Brazil. Locally, almost 8,000 BEC attacks were reported in the first half of 2016.
To minimise the risk of ransomware and BEC, Trend Micro has a number of solutions, including Smart Protection Suite and Deep Discovery Inspector.
