SoylentNews

Ransomware 'Here to Stay', Warns Google Study

posted by martyb on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:32AM   
from the also-sits-and-plays-dead dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Cyber-thieves have made at least $25m (£19m) from ransomware in the last two years, suggests research by Google.

The search giant created thousands of virtual victims of ransomware to expose the payment ecosystem surrounding the malware type.

Most of the money was made in 2016 as gangs realised how lucrative it was, revealed a talk at Black Hat.

Two types of ransomware made most of the money, it said, but other variants are starting to emerge.

"It's become a very, very profitable market and is here to stay," said Elie Bursztein from Google who, along with colleagues Kylie McRoberts and Luca Invernizzi, carried out the research.
...
Mr Bursztein said Google used several different methods to work out how much cash was flowing towards ransomware creators.
...
The research project also revealed where the cash flowed and accumulated in the Bitcoin network and where it was converted back into cash. More than 95% of Bitcoin payments for ransomware were cashed out via Russia's BTC-e exchange, found Google.

---

Original Submission

• Re:Paying the Micro$oft tax Re:Paying the Micro$oft tax (Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:47PM (2 children)

  by Nuke (3162) on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:47PM (#546844)

  at least insure more people had the basic smarts to not click on fucking links emailed to them by strangers

  Trouble is that if you get an email purporting to be from, say, a parcel delivery or your electricity supply company, they are not really "strangers".

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:Paying the Micro$oft tax Re:Paying the Micro$oft tax (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:22PM (1 child)

  by anubi (2828) on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:22PM (#546886) Journal

  Clicking on a link should be only capable of retrieving information. Nothing more.

  Yes, you should be able to retrieve an executable, also being required to complete a dialogue to run it.

  No one should have their machine executing arbitrary code from the net.

  Yet, modern browsers do just that until they have been deliberately crippled with script blockers

  --
  "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  Parent

  • Re:Paying the Micro$oft tax (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday July 31 2017, @03:33AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday July 31 2017, @03:33AM (#546959) Journal

    It used to be that I would only surf the web on Linux.
    Then I would read email only Linux.

    There's less and less I'm willimg to do on Windows, even though some aspects of my job still require it.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

    Parent