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Ransomware Increases Their Attacks on Small and Medium Businesses – Trend Micro


Security researchers of security firm Trend Micro say that having extorted millions from patrons over the last few years, creators of file-encrypting ransomware are now more spotlighting their attention on victims who are more probable to pay up: small and medium-sized (SMBs) businesses.

Researchers of Trend Micro, antivirus vendor, found that throughout June and July, more than 67% of users who clicked on tainted links in CryptoWall-linked emails were from the SMB sector and an additional 17% were from within large businesses.

CryptoWall is one of the most extensive ransomware programs infecting almost 625,000 machines between March and August 2014 and many more ever since then. Researchers approximate that creators have earned well above $1 million through this ransomware.

Statistics of Trend Micro for another notorious ransomware called TorrentLocker also notes that SMBs are more and more being targeted.

Small and medium-sized businesses accounted for more than 40% of clicks on TorrentLocker-connected URLs in June and July which exceeds 50% when large enterprises are included.

The researchers of Trend Micro said that unlike big business firms, SMBs are less probable to use advanced security and backup programs which can prevent ransomware infections and assist them to recover encrypted files.

Australia (31.54%), Italy (26.60%) and Turkey (20.40%) are the top three nations being aimed by emails pointing to TorrentLocker. We analyzed the bait normally employed in these countries. For example, the courier service in Turkey, Turkish Cargo, is being used to trick users into examining the malicious file.

In the meantime, bait by TorrentLocker in Italy differs from the courier service, SDA to ENEL which is a utility company. Moreover, the perpetrators added the telecom giant Italia Mobile (TIM) in its kitty of lures in last August. Phony messages from Australia Post and the AFP are still the same baits being used to trick users in Australia.

Some social engineering tricks of TorrentLocker are consumer-centered as demonstrated by bogus speeding fines sent by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Australia. But, most of the lures are attuned with business targets like parcel notifications which are an important part of day-to-day doings of a small business. In brief, TorrentLocker targets consumers as well as SMBs.

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