Displaying items by tag: Sophos

Ransomware has evolved considerably from its first sighting — Cryptolocker was spotted on 5 September 2013 — and is unlikely to disappear anytime soon as the people behind this breed of malware develop more and more sophisticated ways of weaponising it, a senior security official from global vendor Sophos says.

The actors behind the various Windows ransomware packages changed their tactics to prise money out of their victims' hands in October last year, but it remains to be seen whether their use of social pressure will be more profitable than methods used earlier, a researcher from global security firm Sophos has observed.

Ransomware attacks are generally assumed to hit like a thief at night, often occurring on the weekends when security staff are thinking of anything but work.