Mobile ransomware is growing at an alarming rate, according to a Kaspersky Lab report.
According to the report, their software only protected 35,413 users from April 2014 to March 2015 but it has since increased fourfold to 136,532 users a year later.
The report noted that although the growth curve of mobile ransomware is lesser than PC ransomware, it is still significant enough to confirm a worrying trend.
Germany (22.90%), Canada (19.61%), and United Kingdom (16.13%) were the top three countries who have the highest percentage of users attacked by mobile ransomware out of all users encountering mobile malware in the period of April 2015 – March 2016..
It cited several factors contributing to the rise of ransomware in general such as; people are willing to pay the ransoms; the value of the information stored on digital devices is so high now that paying a ransom to recover it is more cost-effective than not paying the ransom; law enforcement is having difficulty responding to the problem; and new payment tools take it easier for extortionists to collect ransoms.
To avoid being affected by mobile ransomware, the report advised users to not download apps outside Google Play store; patch Android and applications as soon as upgrades are available; and use common sense when granting permissions to an application.
(Photo Source: Kaspersky Lab)
