Mobile ransomware threat looms larger

The threat of ransomware—malicious code that locks people’s computers through encryption and asks users to pay a ransom to decrypt data—is growing. And not just on desktops. A recent report by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab reveals that in the quarter ended March, the number of mobile ransomware attacks reached 218,625, a more than three-fold increase from 61,832 in the previous quarter. The most widely used mobile ransomware, called Trojan-Ransom.AndroidOS.Fusob.h, accounted for nearly 45% of all the attacks in the quarter. The US was the country hardest hit by mobile ransomware. Key findings of the report

Kaspersky Lab solutions detected and repelled 479.5 million malicious attacks from online resources located in 190 countries all over the world

79.21 million unique URLs were recognized as malicious by web antivirus components

Attempted infections by malware that aims to steal money via online access to bank accounts were registered on 288,000 user computers

Crypto-ransomware attacks were blocked on 240,799 computers of unique users

Kaspersky Lab’s file antivirus detected a total of 174.99 million unique malicious and potentially unwanted objects

Kaspersky Lab mobile security products also detected 1.33 million malicious installation packages and 32,038 mobile banking Trojans (installation packages)

Companies and users have been advised to use robust security solutions, update all software and back up valuable information