In return, whoever is offering the service says they will automatically take a 10 percent cut of ransoms. Xavier Mertens, a Belgian-based security researcher and Internet Storm Handler, on Thursday described a darknet website he found that generates new ransomware, on demand, for anyone who provides a bitcoin address to which ransoms will get deposited. Low Barriers to Entryįor anyone who wants to use ransomware to generate illicit gains, barriers to entry remain low (see Want to Get Into Ransomware? This Kit Costs Just $175). Reached for comment, researchers associated with ID Ransomware say that while there are a large number of Hidden Tear variants, they're not counted separately unless it's a big new strain that merits special mention. "The code was taken and then modified to be more malicious, and then you started seeing things in the wild actually utilizing it." (See Cybercrime-as-a-Service Economy: Stronger Than Ever) "I bet you a lot of them are based off of Hidden Tear, which was that open source ransomware that some researchers created, saying, 'I want to help the world by spreading this open source ransomware,'" Kujawa says. It's unclear how many of the 342 new types of ransomware have been built from scratch or may have been modified from previous efforts. That count represents a sharp increase from October 2016, when the service listed just 200 ransomware families. ID Ransomware, a site that allows victims to upload a ransom note or encrypted file to identify the ransomware that crypto-locked them, now counts 542 ransomware families, starting with 4rw5w, 777 and 7ev3n, and ending with ZipLocker, Zipper and Zyklon. One measure of the problem is the many different types of ransomware available to would-be cybercriminals, be they based in their parents' basement or part of a larger organized crime ring. "From a business standpoint, the biggest threat, especially at the end of last year, was ransomware," says Adam Kujawa, director of malware intelligence at security firm Malwarebytes.
See Also: OnDemand | Navigating the Difficulties of Patching OT Ransomware continues to pose a clear and present threat to businesses and consumers.
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