Hackers to Take Ransomware to the Next Level in 2017

The arrival of new methods of cyber extortion like Locky and Cryptowall has caused experts to christen 2016 as the year of ransomware. And now, infosec professionals are predicting that ransomware will continue to grow in prevalence and sophistication in 2017.
 
With new and frightening ransomware variants on the horizon, a recent CSO Online article featured predictions for the industry’s top security experts about what to expect in 2017. In the article, WatchGuard CTO, Corey Nachreiner, predicts that 2017 will see the first ever “ransomworm,” causing ransomware to spread even faster:
 
“Years ago, network worms like CodeRed, SQL Slammer, and more recently, Conficker were pretty common. Hackers exploited network vulnerabilities and tricks to make malware automatically spread itself over networks. Now, imagine ransomware attached to a network worm. After infecting one victim, it would tirelessly copy itself to every computer on your local network it could reach. Whether or not you want to imagine such a scenario, I guarantee that cyber criminals are already thinking about it.”

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