The price of ransomware is getting higher, both in numbers and in damages. The usual sum demanded from the scammers has jumped by 266% in the last year according to a Symantec report.
The increase in ransomware and cybercrime
The profits of cybercrime are only getting bigger. The reasons are:
- Cheap and easy to use scamming tools – the cybercriminal industry has developed many tools and services that can help crooks with their crimes. Nowadays you don’t even need much technical skill or even intelligence to launch a ransomware campaign or another cyberscam. The tools are easy to use and hard to trace.
- More and more computerization of industry and private life – using computers and the Internet is getting more heavy in all areas of life, including sex life are getting more and more cybernetic. This opens the risks of hacking and cyber-scamming.
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Use of PCs for valuable data – just a few short years ago, people didn’t store all that much personal or work-related data on their computers. With the increase in Web banking and long-distance communication, people are now more reliant on their computers.
This is good for the scammers, are the higher value of encrypted files means that people would be willing to pay a higher ransom fee.
Germany reported an 80% increase in cyber-criminal activities for 2016. As the Symantec story suggests, the ransomware scamming industry is only getting bigger. The larger sums demanded of the crooks may be due to both the willingness of people to pay and the increase in the BitCoin value.
The usual ransomware demands something around 1 BTC. Since BitCoins are getting more and more valuable as time goes on, the price of the ransomware will also increase.
1 BTC in early 2016 was worth around 500$ while now it’ s closer to 1000$. This is reflected in the ransomware prices. According to the report, the usual cost of a crypto-virus is $1,077.
