We don't yet know whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic sanctions on Russia will affect the operations of Kaspersky software. Therefore, ransomware will likely to continue its impressive growth over * the next few years.We must mention that Kaspersky is a Russian company with many operations around the world. Users will probably not change their careless behavior, and will continue to pay ransom to get their data back for practical and pragmatic reasons. Bitcoin and other digital currencies virtually guarantee untraceability to the attackers. Law enforcement agencies lack coordination on the global and even national level, and face a serious shortage of the necessary resources to fight this emerging niche of cybercrime. However, it does not mean that IoT and other devices running ancient mobile OS won’t be massively targeted by the attackers in the near future. Mobile devices are generally become more secure by default, therefore, a decrease in mobile ransomware is foreseeable. Big data and machine learning are also coming to the service of cybercrime, for example, they can be used to suggest the highest ransom a victim can pay based on the victim’s profile. In the near future, we will probably see an important growth of complementary services offered to the ransomware gangs, such as online or phone support for the victims, or money laundering services. Actors are working on various niche specializations to avoid direct competition and maximize their profit.

“The report is a clear indicator that the ransomware market is becoming more professional and mature. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at High-Tech Bridge: Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at High-Tech Bridge commented below. Kaspersky has released its new ransomware report – KSN Report: Ransomware in 2016-2017, downloadable from here.

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