Symantec Corp released its annual “Ransomware and Businesses” report this week outlining the increasing sophistication of ransomware attacks. Individuals continue to be the primary target of ransomware attacks as they usually have the weakest security measures. Although the health care industry has clearly been targeted recently, the report states that the service industry and manufacturing industries had significant attacks at 38 percent and 17 percent respectively.

According to the report, the hackers have a “gold rush” mentality now that is boosting their confidence and is providing incentive to find more and more sophisticated techniques and the request for higher payments.

Symantec stated “A growing number of gangs are beginning to focus on targeted attacks against large organizations…that can potentially infect thousands of computers, causing massive operational disruption and serious damage to revenues and reputation.”

Message? Ransomware will continue to increase and be a problem for organizations in the coming months and years as the hackers are getting paid and continue to be incentivized to find more and more sophisticated techniques. Organizations may wish to continue to focus on combating ransomware in their organizations as it is not going away.

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