“Mobile ransomware has risen by over 250 percent during the first few months of 2017, according to a report Monday by the security firm Kaspersky. The publication of the cybersecurity statistics, which revealed that the U.S. is the country worst affected by the issue, comes as experts warn of a ransomware epidemic in the wake of the WannaCry cyberattack.

The Kaspersky Lab Malware Report for the first quarter of this year revealed that the number of mobile ransomware files detected had reached 218,625, compared with 61,832 in the previous quarter. Devices compromised by ransomware mean the owner must pay a ransom in order to recover their data.

The threat is most often associated with computers, but Roman Unuchek, a senior malware analyst at Kaspersky, said the report should serve as a reminder that attackers are not only targeting PCs but also mobile devices. “The mobile threat landscape for ransomware was far from calm” during the first three months of 2017, he said.”

Read more details here.

Author: Anthony Cuthbertson