United States Target One for Mobile Ransomware

June 29, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

New word from Kaspersky Lab, one of the biggest names in cybersecurity around, says that Americans have a bit of an unusual problem these days: mobile ransomware. While Kaspersky points out that mobile ransomware tends to target wealthy countries with advanced mobile infrastructure and payment systems to match, it seems the United States leads the way as a target for this particular crime.

We’re not alone on this front, of course—Canada, Germany and the UK all make the list as well—but the risk pattern is definitely shifting. In the 2015-2016 studies on the same topic, Germany was actually the frontrunner for risk in mobile malware, while the US came in at number four on the list. With a 19 percent gain in risk in the US, however, it was apparently enough to shift the US to the top slot in the 2016-2017 study.

Mostly, this is due not only to the higher levels of income in this country—there’s nothing to steal elsewhere—but also due to the broader mobile saturation faced in this regions. More opportunities for better payouts equals more reasons for thieves to show up. However, this has also made individuals somewhat less at risk; more and more cybercriminals are targeting institutions thanks to larger potential payouts.

There are means to protect oneself, of course, ranging from the obvious like keeping up with software updates to routinely backing up data to treating unexpected emails cautiously. Also important, since businesses are frequently targeted, is for corporate users to focus some protection efforts as well on the employees and offer routine education and training in how to spot potential threats.

Some even suggest going so far as to keep one completely offline computer on hand for a storage facility; it’s technically possible to hack an unconnected computer, but it requires some very specific and difficult methods. For most people, one offline backup is really all that’s needed.

Ransomware can be a big threat, but most of its bluster can be countered just by keeping proper backups in play. By doing that, users take away a lot of the threat and reduce it to a minor inconvenience. When ransomware is just an annoyance on par with a stubbed toe, much of it will likely go away.