| |September 20178CIOReviewWannaCry is part of a bigger problem By Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet. IN MY OPINIONhen a cyber threat grows in magnitude by 35 times in one year, every organization should pay heed. This is exactly what has happened with ransomware. Hacktivists targeted organizations around the world representing myriad industry segments and businesses of virtually every size in the recent WannaCry attacks. Ransomware-as-a-service and affiliate models have lowered the entry bar for cybercriminals. And monetary technologies like bitcoin make it virtually impossible for law enforcement authorities to track ransom payments. With the exponential growth in ransom paid to ransomware hacktivists, the prospect that this will continue--and at a faster rate--in coming years is great. Recognizing the growing threat, banks overseas are stocking up on bitcoin so that their customers (and themselves) can Wquickly pay cybercriminals to unlock hacked data. The financial impact to organizations is much larger than just the ransom being paid to cybercriminals. Downtime translates into thousands and often hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and productivity. Organizations across multiple industry sectors can attest to these implications.Scope Of the Threat Data is at the heart of most organizations today--from small businesses to large enterprises. Digitization of more and more company assets, in addition to the growing importance of the cloud, puts data in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. It is becoming a much bigger problem today, with data growing at a rate of more than double every two years. Recognizing the value of data, cybercriminals are increasingly turning to ransomware as a means of monetization. They infiltrate IT systems and access data through various hacks, encrypting, locking, and exfiltrating files. Unable to access information that is critical to their businesses, hacked organizations are forced to pay for the information to be released by the cybercriminals. The sophistication of many of these efforts has evolved to the point where cybercriminals provide their victims with live customer support that walks them through the processes to remit payment as well as regain access to their data and IT systems.Ransomware Attacks SkyrocketSo how serious is the threat of ransomware? Last year, ransomware attacks more than doubled. Upwards of 4,000 ransomware attacks happen daily, infecting an average of between 30,000 and 50,000 devices monthly. And the potential for additional growth is huge. Even with this rate of increase, ransomware only comprises two percent of total malware attacks today. The financial repercussions of ransomware has skyrocketed as well. Consider the following. In 2015, a total of $24 million in ransom was paid out; in 2016, that number shot up to more than $850 million. The amount being demanded by cybercriminals is following a parallel path: the average demand for every attack jumped from $294 in 2015 to $679 in 2016. But
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