Ransomware is malware for data kidnapping, an exploit in which the attacker encrypts the victim's data and demands payment for the decryption key. It spreads through e-mail attachments, infected programmes and compromised websites.

According to most predictions by security commentators, ransomware is set to evolve and dominate cyber attacks in 2017. There will not only be an increase in the number of attacks rise but also an evolution of the malware, which is expected to become more sophisticated.

Ransomware is the simplest and most effective way to achieve the pursuit of profit, with companies becoming increasingly attractive targets as this allows attacks to request more money than they would receive from a typical user.

Ransomware Predictions 2017

The emergence of open source ransomware programmes on GitHub and hacking forums is expected to further spur the growth of these attacks in 2017. Alternatively, cyber criminals without the skills to create their own malware can outsource it with the ransomware as a service (RaaS) model, which provides automatically generated ransomware executables.

But it doesn't stop here, the emergence of self-propagating ransomware with the same kind of characteristics traditionally found in network worms, such as Conficker is also on the list of predicitons. This will result in a breed of ransomware designed to produce endless duplicates of itself, spreading the infection across an entire network.

Business-wide vulnerabilities

All businesses will be vulnerable as attack targets, whether they are a Fortune 500 company, a family-run business or a utility company, and will therefore need much more focused approaches to cyber risk management.

Source: Computer Weekly