Ransomware victims paid over $25 million to recover files

Ransomware victims have paid more than $25 million in the past two years to get their data back, a new study by Google has shown. The report, made by researchers at Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego, and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, followed the trail of cryptomoney through the blockchain, allowing researchers to get a birds-eye view of the ransomware world. A total of 34 ransomware families were tracked, but only a handful made most of the profit. This includes Locky, whose epidemic forced more than $7 million in payments. Locky was the first ransomware to split payment and encryption… [Continue Reading]