“Mobile Ransomware Hits Browsers with Old-School Techniques”

Ransomware is expected to increasingly target mobile devices such smartphones and tablets as tools and services for performing such attacks on these devices become more accessible to cybercriminals via the dark web. According to researchers from SecureWorks’ Counter Threat Unit (CTU), the variation of ransomware has expanded as 200 new ransomware variants have been discovered in 2016, an increase of 122% from 2015.  CTU researchers have also discovered a number of different types of malware being advertised for sale within the dark web, which are capable of performing acts of ransomware on Android smartphones such encrypting files and demanding payments in addition to spying on the device’s functions. This article further discusses the expected growth of mobile ransomware, malware that is being sold in the dark web that indicate this growth, techniques used in the launch of mobile ransomware on browsers,  along with the growth of business email compromise (BEC) and business email spoofing (BES). 

Dark Reading reports “Mobile Ransomware Hits Browsers with Old-School Techniques”