Ransomware Attacks Spiked in First Half of 2018, SonicWall Reports

SonicWall's mid-year 2018 cyber-threat report reveals that there has been a 229 percent increase in ransomware attacks so far this year. The first half of 2018 has seen a resurgence in ransomware attacks, according to SonicWall's mid-year 2018 cyber-threat report released on July 10. For the first six months of 2018, SonicWall reported that it found 5.99 billion malware attacks, which is a 102 percent increase over the first six months of 2017. Of particular note, is a 229 percent, year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks, with 181.5 million attacks since January. "We have seen an overall increase in Cerber family ransomware attacks in the first half of 2018," Alex Dubrovsky, vice president of software engineering and threat research at SonicWall told eWEEK. "We have also observed a few select strategic network locations targeted by Wannacrypt variants at a very high volume. " Wannacrypt, which is also known as WannaCry, first struck systems around the world in May 2017 and has remained an issue ever since. With ransomware, malware encrypts user data and then holds it for ransom until the victim pays. Ransomware isn't the only use of encryption by attackers. SonicWall noted that overall the use of encryption for data in transit using SSL/TLS for both legitimate traffic and cyber-attacks has grown to 69.7 percent, up from 68 percent in 2017. Looking specifically at attacks that make use of encryption, SonicWall reported a 275 percent increase in the first half of 2018.