Ransomware Statistics – Growth of Ransomware in 2016

“youaresofartohackme” has been one of taunts thrown at security researchers this year. And obvio, it was Ransomware crooks who could do this. Though, the wily criminals used ‘comment tactic’ in the middle of the year, but seems like they have been carrying ill-intentions even before 2016 initiated.

2016, also designated as ‘year of ransomware’ has seen enormous growth in Ransomware diffusion, transmission and ransom thieving. So much so, that criminals have made cyberware models and invite amateur crooks to host the Ransomware flag to newer heights. The wreak havoc is seeing no stoppage anytime soon. Until now, Ransomware flow has seen an increase of 500% from the previous year. To help you have better insight, we have collected a piece of organized Ransomware statistics. Get a clear sense with it and protect your data before the malicious Trojan takes over it.

1. Rise in Ransomware Distribution: From the beginning of the year, ransomware attacks have bombarded like never before. In total, there is an increase of 500% in malware spread. Criminals have taken up different mediums for distribution, including email, website attachments, social media, USB drives, business application, unknown source. Refer to the graph below for acute data.

Note: Emails include two categories of 31% & 28%, standing for Email Links & Email Attachments respectively.

2. Growth in infection: Apart from distribution, Ransomware variants were able to inflict on to users’ devices massively. On an average, Ransomware infects 30,000 to 35,000 devices in a month. However, in March 2016 the Trojan variants managed to pollute 56,000 devices. These devices also included Macs and it was vitiated by KeRanger Ransomware.

3. Growth in Ransom payment: Along with Ransomware distribution and infection, thieving has also seen a growth. Approximately $209 million was paid to criminals in the first quarter of the year. FBI estimates are even higher. They have expected $1 billion ransom as the mediocre income of cyber criminals.
4. Growth in Business Ransomware:

A research conducted in June 2016 by Osterman Research says, almost every second participant confirmed their organization was once taken on by Ransomware in past 12 months. Despite that, 4% of organizations were confident enough on their security strategies, so much so that it would prevent all sort of Ransomware attacks (in case they face any).

5. Average Ransomware demand: Ransom demand has increased radically. Criminals are now demanding more than double the ransom they demanded in the previous year. Ransom demand for every attack has seen a jump from $294 to $679 in the current year.

6. New Ransomware families: Seems like malware distribution has become the easiest income source in this day and age. There is a 600% upsurge in new ransomware variants. On numbers, wily criminals have developed 50 new variants every single month in the first five months of 2016.

Source: proofpoint.com

This year, crooks have also been particular about their target victims and the method of infection. Therefore, they haven’t left any platform untouched, be it Mac, Linux or Android. Meanwhile, they have also used different tactics of spreading the infection. The most typical one has been JavaScript file attachments, installing Ransomware payloads. See it numbers.

7. Data protection Stats: While many are falling prey to Ransomware attacks, some have been smart enough to deal better. According to a research conducted by Barkly, 100% organizations actively backup their data in order to take prior measures against Ransomware. Perhaps, 4 out of 5 organizations were confident that they’ll be able recover their data via backup, without paying ransom. Less than half of the organizations (summing up to 42%) actually recovered it with backups. And despite all this, 5% organizations even considered paying ransom as an option.

So what are you waiting for? Backup your data before it is stolen by crooks. You can protect your data on cloud with Right Backup app. Right backup is a safe, secure and handy app to backup various documents on cloud. The app is designed with amazing features to backup with prior scheduling, retrieving data and managing number of cloud accounts at a time. Right backup is compatible with all platforms including Android, iOS, Mac and Windows and supports all versions of Windows.

Download the app to know more of its features and obviously to protect your data.

P:S: All the data shown in the post are taken from Barkly!