The Number Of New Ransomware Modifications Doubled In Q2 2019

Vaibhav Kapadia - Oct 01, 2019

Recently, researchers found 16,017 ransomware modifications in Q2 2019, which included those that belong to 8 new malware families.

Recently, researchers found 16,017 ransomware modifications in Q2 2019, which included those that belong to 8 new malware families. Interestingly, this figure was over twice the number of new ransomware found at this time last year, which was 7,620.

the-number-of-new-ransomware-modifications-doubled-in-q2-2019-1 — Currently, more and more people are being affected by the highly increased number of ransomware

As stated in a report titled “Kaspersky IT Threat Evolution Q2 2019,” over 230,000 people were reported to be harmed by the ransomware from April to June.

Kaspersky Security researcher Fedor Sinitsyn said:

He added that in over a year and a half, this family remained among the most rampant ransomware families found, but despite its decline, the statistic did not decrease because there are others.

What makes a Trojan-Ransom successful in attacking both corporate and private systems is the fact that it has an exceptionally effective yet simple functionality. It attacks by encrypting files on a computer and demands its users for a ransom so that the files would be returned.

the-number-of-new-ransomware-modifications-doubled-in-q2-2019-2 — Trojan-Ransom, a simple yet effective tool in evading personal and corporate files

The fact that these malicious modifications, as well as new families of ransomware, increasingly show up indicates an escalation in recent criminal activity, which results in the emerge of newer versions of malware.

Compared to the second quarter of 2018, 46 percent more people were attacked by such ransomware, raising the total number of affected users from 158,921 to 232,292. Countries with the highest percentage of such attacks would be listed as followed in increasing order: Mozambique (4 percent), Uzbekistan (6 percent) and Bangladesh (9 percent).

The cybersecurity firm has also identified and repelled an amazingly huge number of 717,057,912 malevolent invasions from resources basing online, which scattered across 200 countries as well as territories all over the world.

The antivirus file of Kaspersky has been reported to find a total of 240,754,063 harmful and possibly unwanted objects, which is an increase of 25 percent compared to 2018’s second quarter. Kaspersky security products on a mobile platform have also identified 753,550 harmful installation packages, equal to a decrease of 57 percent compared to the same period last year.