And the new brand of ransomware spreads through networks and across businesses so you might fall victim even though it was your colleague or business partner that clicked on the wrong link. Hackers not only steal and lock files away, but they also leak data in the most damaging way if a ransom settlement is not reached. Anybody can be attacked and breached,” explains Tyler Moffitt, senior threat analyst at Carbonite + Webroot. In other words, “ransomware isn’t just a targeted model that you have to click on to fall for. Instead of petty crooks, we now see criminal gangs that combine ransomware with worm-like capabilities that utilize a double extortion method. The ransomware we see today has evolved over the last 20 years to become the monster seen in news headlines. Going through the history of ransomware, Grayson notes that it started as small-time swindles “with the goal of getting you to pay 50 bucks.”
“The first types of ransomware have existed for quite some time, going all the way back to the early 2000s,” says Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director at Carbonite + Webroot. But its recent domination of the airwaves has been a long time coming. And it’s no wonder–with million-dollar payouts, infrastructure attacks and international manhunts, ransomware makes for exciting headlines. Ransomware attacks dominate news coverage of the cybersecurity industry.
