The Ransomware problem continues, this time hitting the Lincolnshire County Council of Lincolnshire, England. The City Council reported that the attacks left employees locked out for the better part of a week, proving that cyber criminals are becoming bolder with targets and are not shying away from government attacks. The use of Ransomware in particular has risen, with Intel Security claiming that Ransomware use has seen a 58 percent increase in usage since the second quarter of 2015.
Ransomware has become popular due to its relative ease to implement, its difficulty in tracking the source and its lucrative payouts. Unfortunately, other methods of cyber extortion, such as DDoS attacks, are increasing in popularity as well. With this method, attackers use DDoS through flooding one’s IP address with commands until the internet connection is no longer responsive and then demand payment from their victims in order to cease the attacks and restore internet connection. David Emm of Kaspersky Lab urges victims of Ransomware to only pay as a last resort, and to avoid attacks companies should follow strict security policies and remain up to date on all security measures.