Mobile Ransomware Grows Three-Fold, Says Kaspersky Lab

As global ransomware attacks show no signs of slowing down, the volume of mobile ransomware has grown over three-fold during the first quarter of the year, a cyber-security firm said on Friday.

According to Moscow-based cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab, the number of mobile ransomware files detected reached 2,18,625 during the first quarter, compared to 61,832 in the previous quarter.

The growth of ransomware attacks on all devices grew with 11 new cryptor families and 55,679 new modifications making their appearance in the first quarter.

"Ransomware targeting mobile devices soared in first quarter, with new ransomware families and modifications continuing to proliferate. People need to bear in mind that attackers can try to block access to their data not only on a PC but also on their mobile device," said Roman Unuchek, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

"Trojan-Ransom.AndroidOS.Fusob.h" remained the most widely used mobile ransomware, accounting for nearly 45 per cent of all users attacked by this threat.

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"Once run, the Trojan requests administrator privileges, collects information about the device, including GPS coordinates and call history, and uploads the data to a malicious server. Based on what it receives, the server may send back a command to block the device," the company explained.

According to Kaspersky Lab, it detected and repelled 480 million malicious attacks from online resources located in 190 countries all over the world and 80 million unique URLs were recognised as malicious by web antivirus components.

"Attempted infections by malware that aims to steal money via online access to bank accounts were registered on 288,000 user computers," the company said.

Kaspersky Lab mobile security products also detected 13,33,605 malicious installation packages and 32,038 mobile banking Trojans.

The company recommended to use robust security solutions and make sure they keep all software up to date and regularly run a system scan to check for possible infection.

"Stay wise while online. Do not enter personal information into a website if you are at all unsure or suspicious. Back up valuable information," the cyber-security firm suggested.