

The other factor attributed to ransomware's decline is the volatility of cryptocurrencies. As such, ransomware is likely generating less revenue because fewer people are being infected. One is that the WannaCry malware received so much media attention, the general public is now largely aware of the dangers of ransomware, as well as prevention techniques. There are two main factors attributed to the decline in ransomware infections. This raises questions about what's driving this trend and how much of a concern ransomware is now. According to security vendor Barkly, by the end of 2017, ransomware accounted for less than 5% of all malware infections. Sources in the security world have reported a sharp decline in the number of ransomware infections at the end of 2017 and into 2018. Ransomware is still a viable threat in 2018 If completely encrypted, the OS would become unbootable and incapable of displaying these instructions. They need to keep the computer's operating system sufficiently functional so it can display payment instructions to the victim. The second reason ransomware usually attacks data at the file level is it would be counterproductive for ransomware authors to encrypt a computer's boot volume. It's highly unlikely an end user would have volume-level permission over such a drive. A casual user may have sufficient permissions to make volume-level modifications to his or her computer, but modern ransomware variants almost always attack mapped network drives. There are two main reasons for this.įirst, ransomware runs under the same security context as the end user who's logged in at the time of the attack.

In most cases, a ransomware infection attacks data at the file level, not at the volume level. There are countless ransomware variants in the wild, which means cyberthieves aren't using a standard algorithm to encrypt victims' files. To appreciate how object storage can protect data from ransomware, you must understand how ransomware works. Object storage makes it difficult - although not impossible - for ransomware to infect files. Backing up data is important in the war on ransomware, but you may also be able to add an extra layer of protection through what may seem like an unlikely approach: object storage technology.

Attack, which affected more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries.Ĭonventional wisdom has long held that a current backup is the best defense against ransomware.
