Ransomware Up 41% in 2019 With Huge Payment Spikes Too!

The internet can be a dangerous place and that is perhaps best demonstrated in the rapid and alarming growth of ‘ransomware‘ within the last 5 years.

For those of you unaware of what it is, let me give you a brief rundown. Essentially, a file is downloaded and opened on your PC (usually via e-mail and often ‘accidentally’ by the user). Once opened, the file encrypts all of the documents on your PC and, the next time you boot it up, you’re met with an alarming message telling you that to get your files back, you’re going to have to pay a fine. If you don’t, they’ll be locked from you forever.

Hence the term Ransomware. Your files are literally being held to ransom.

If you did, however, think that this was perhaps dying out a little, it seems you couldn’t be more wrong. In a report via TechSpot, a research group has found that, overall, ransomware attacks went up by 41% in 2019. Worse though, so did the average payment to these blackmailers!

Ransomware Spikes 41% and So Does the Average Payout!

In the report, it was found that 205,280 organizations reported having issues with ransomware in 2019. This, based on 2018, is where the 41% spike comes from.

In terms of ‘average’ PC users, however, while I dread to think, I suspect that this has likely also seen an increase throughout the year.

What makes this all much worse, however, is that it seems that more and more companies have been paying the ransom. The report found that the average payment has been something in the region of $190,000.

What Do We Think?

When people start paying the ransoms, this only makes it a greater and more circular problem. If a hacking group gets a nice fat payout, then it will only encourage them to keep on doing it! It’s very simple logic, but apparently some morons at these organizations simply can’t wrap their heads around that!

So, please, company or private individual, if you become the victim of ransomware, don’t pay the fine! If you regularly back-up or save your data, it can never be held to ransom against you!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!