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Ransomware: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Mark Sangster

Ransomware has quickly emerged as a billion dollar industry and shows no sign of slowing down. 2016 statistics indicate that 40% of spam email contained ransomware, representing 60% of infections. Every 40 seconds, a company gets hit with ransomware and payouts are significantly higher than consumer focused cyber extortion, with payments ranging from $17,000 to $150,000. And just recently, countries in Europe and elsewhere were hit with a massive ransomware attack by the WannaCry malware. Fortunately, the U.S. was mostly spared. See, “The WannaCry Attack: A Wake-up Call for Organizational Information Governance?,” elsewhere in this issue.

So why is ransomware the ubiquitous nuisance it is? Simple: It works. Over 70% of companies pay the ransom.

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