A report from the Financial Times said Bitcoin has led to a rise in cyberattacks where hackers hold computers and personal data hostage in exchange for ransoms paid in the digital currency. Citing data from security firm McAfee, the report said these ransomware attacks have increased over two-fold in the last two and a half years. In a ransomware attack, hackers encrypt data which would remain inaccessible to the owner until such time that payment is received.
In the last quarter, there were more than 300,000 known incidents recorded. The victims were often compelled to pay those who perpetrated the cyberattack hundreds of dollars since they could not anymore have access to their computer and important files and felt they had little recourse to law, the report said. Bitcoin is also the preferred ransom currency by cyberattackers because it is difficult to trace compared to credit card payments in regular currencies. As the price of Bitcoin soars, criminals also have another way to profit from the ransomware attacks.
Cybersecurity firm F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen told the Financial Times that more victims worldwide have been targeted by Cryptolocker ransomware which he calls a "major headache." He said, "Companies have been infected and it doesn't just encrypt the hard drive, but every file a computer can access on a local network."
Last month, the cybercrime unit of the National Crime Agency of the UK issued a warning about a mass spam email campaign that specifically targeted small and medium-sized businesses. Email attachments contained Cryptolocker ransomware which, when clicked on, would infect their entire networks.
According to McAffee Chief Technology Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa Raj Samani, cybercriminals need not even have to technologically adept since the ransomware can be bought as a kit online. He told the Financial Times, "It is an evolution of crime, with more and more people migrating over to this as it is physically safe, considerably easier and harder to enforce."
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