Has the time of targeted ransomware arrived?

Out of six Southeast Asian countries, Singapore is the only one to see an increase in the number of ransomware infection attempts. Specifically, the number of detected cases increased from 2,275 in 2019 to 3,191 in 2020.

Although Indonesia still ranks 5th globally in the number of ransomware attacks detected, it has dropped from 1,158,837 cases in 2019 to 439,473 cases in 2020. This downtrend also also appeared in other countries in the region including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.

China remains at the top of the list for the number of ransomware cases globally in both 2019 and 2020. Meanwhile, Brazil and Russia have swapped the 2nd and 3rd place in the rankings, with Brazil currently ranked 2nd by 2020.

Has the time of targeted ransomware arrived? Picture 1

Fedor Sinitsyn, security researcher at Kaspersky said: 'When looking at the statistics for each individual ransomware group, I noticed that this trend was in line with an overall drop in the number of detected cases, This is mainly due to the decrease in the number of cases involving WannaCry.

This group makes up a sizable share of all the ransomware discovered to date, although for more than three years these have not been supported by the 'originator' and exist only as one. 'zombie'.

One of the most persistent cyber threats facing small and medium businesses in the region is still ransomware, malicious code designed to infect the computers of organizations and individuals, and encrypting data. Data inside and block access to the computer. The attackers will then request a fee from the victim in exchange for re-activation of the system.

Ransomware attacks may be on the decline, but Kaspersky has been warning businesses of all sizes in every sector about the increasing activity of Ransomware 2.0, also known as ransomware. have purpose.

Mr. Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager of Kaspersky Southeast Asia commented: 'We should not be optimistic that the number of detected ransomware cases has decreased. Since last year, we have noticed a number of changes to this threat.

The ransomware teams are now more concerned with quality than quantity. This means that instead of randomly dropping and passively waiting for an unsafe user to bite, attackers are now actively hunting for victims. '

David Pac

Update 24 April 2021