Australia is One of The Top 10 Countries Heavily Affected By Ransomware

Ransomware attacks are on the rise – up 11 percent in a year to almost 2.6 million around the world. In the past 12 months, high profile attacks have hit the headlines, including the WannaCry attack.

Australia is one of the top 10 countries hit hardest by ransomware and the US is still the country that is most affected by ransomware.

According to a report by Norton, organisations accounted for 42 percent of all ransomware infections during the first 6 months of 2017, up from 30 percent in 2016 as well as 29 percent in 2015.

Furthermore, businesses in particular are most at risk to a highly disruptive avenue of attack known as worm-type threats, which can spread across poorly secured networks within minutes.

It seems ransomware attackers may have found a “sweet spot” with the average ransom demand seeming to have stabilised at $AU687.

The other regions that are heavily affected by ransomware during 2017 to date include Japan (9%), Italy (8%), India (4%), as well as Germany (4%). The top 10 regions were rounded out by UK (3%), Netherlands (3%), Russia (3%), Australia (3%), as well as Canada (3%).