And that approach probably works out just fine from a law enforcement organization ’ s perspective . However , from the viewpoint of a private citizen whose entire database has been held hostage by vicious hackers , not paying a ransom Attack.Ransom is hardly an option . According to the FBI ’ s own statistics , ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom are spreading like virus in the US alone , with a spike as alarming as $ 209 million in damages in the first three months of 2016 . When you look at it , the reasons behind the spread of ransomware are quite easy to understand . The malicious coding can be acquired by anyone with an internet connection for as little as a hundred dollars on the Deep Web , the psychological pressure over losing one ’ s important data almost always ends up in a successful heist and the current law enforcement system can and does very little to prevent the situation from going out of control . That , however , is not to say that the law enforcement isn ’ t concerned . In a news report released in April 2016 , the FBI expressed its direct concerns over the unchallenged growth of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom and urged any victims to not give in to the demand for ransom Attack.Ransom unless all other options are exhausted . Unfortunately , however , as is the case with most ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom , the stakes of losing years worth of important data is always quite high and the ransom demanded Attack.Ransom usually very small , leading most victims to give in to the attackers ’ demands Attack.Ransom before even reaching out to law enforcement . For starters , though , let ’ s try and have a look at what ransomware is , and what differentiates it from other types of malicious coding . The most common form of ransomware is one that infiltrates your network , gains access Attack.Databreach to your data and encrypts them using advanced algorithms to prevent you from accessing your own files . A demand Attack.Ransom for an aggressive amount of money , generally in Bitcoin , is then demanded Attack.Ransom by the perpetrator in exchange for the key that decrypts said data that has been hijacked . There are , of course , several other types of ransomware , such as the kind that block access to the entire operating system or the kind that attaches itself to a partition of the computer ’ s hard drive . Most ransomware come with some sort of encryption key that is used to unlock the stolen data files once ransom is paid Attack.Ransom , though there is absolutely no guarantee that the perpetrator will keep their end of the bargain once money is transferred . The majority of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom come with a set of identifying characteristics , such as the use of malicious coding that can spread throughout the network , the blocking of access to important data in the victim ’ s servers in a variety of creative ways , including the scrambling of file names and adding different extensions to prevent them from being accessed . Ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom also feature a time limit to add an element of psychological pressure against the victim , after which the data in concern is either stolen Attack.Databreach or deleted from the victim ’ s servers permanently . Attackers these days almost always ask for payment Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin , as the cryptocurrency is incredibly difficult to track as far as payments go . The concern over ransomware lies not in individual cases but the number of cases reported each year , which makes it the most popular cyber-infiltration scenario in current times . According to the Cyber Threat Alliance ( CTA ) , the damages caused by CryptoWall 3 , a particular type of ransomware , hit Attack.Ransom $ 325 million in 2015 alone . As per statistics produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation , in the first few months of 2016 , a single variant of ransomware infected as many as 100,000 computers each day . In the March of 2016 , the number of computers infected by ransomware technology hit the absolute upper ceiling for the year , reports Symantec . While the cases , when considered individually , may not amount to much , the number of incidents reported worldwide in any given year is clearly a matter of global concern .

A group calling itself XMR Squad has spent all last week launching DDoS attacks against German businesses and then contacting the same companies to inform them they had to pay Attack.Ransom €250 ( $ 275 ) for `` testing their DDoS protection systems . '' German DDoS protection firm Link11 reported attacks against DHL , Hermes , AldiTalk , Freenet , Snipes.com , the State Bureau of Investigation Lower Saxony , and the website of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The attack Attack.Ransom against DHL Germany was particularly effective as it shut down the company 's business customer portal and all APIs , prompting eBay Germany to issue an alert regarding possible issues with packages sent via DHL . `` They seem to know what to hit , '' said Daniel Smith , security researcher for Radware , and one of the persons currently keeping tabs of the attacks . The group sent emails to all the companies it targeted . In the emails , they did n't ask for a ransom Attack.Ransom to stop the attacks Attack.Ransom , but a fee for having already carried out what they called a DDoS protection test . Usually , these types of groups launch DDoS attacks and then send emails to their victims requesting for payments Attack.Ransom to stop the attacks Attack.Ransom . XMR Squad 's emails looked like invoices for unrequested DDoS tests . Furthermore , the ransom note did n't include payment instructions , which is weird , to say the least . DDoS ransoms Attack.Ransom are usually handled in Bitcoin or another anonymous cryptocurrency . It was strange to see the group ask for payment Attack.Ransom in Euros , as the group 's name included the term XMR , the shortname for Monero , an anonymous cryptocurrency . While the group advertised on Twitter that their location was in Russia , a German reporter who spoke with the group via telephone said `` the caller had a slight accent , but spoke perfect German . '' To the same reporter , the group also claimed they carried out the attacks only to get public attention . The attention they got was n't the one they expected , as their hosting provider took down their website , located at xmr-squad.biz . Germany , in particular , has been the target of several DDoS blackmailers in the past year . In January and February , a group calling itself Stealth Ravens launched DDoS-for-Bitcoin ransom attacks Attack.Ransom . Link11 , who tracked those attacks Attack.Ransom , claimed the group used a DDoS botnet built with the Mirai IoT malware and asked for Attack.Ransom 5 Bitcoin ( $ 6,000 ) to stop attacks Attack.Ransom . Last year in June , another group named Kadyrovtsy also targeted German businesses , launching attacks Attack.Ransom of up to 50 Gbps . This group began DDoS ransom attacks Attack.Ransom a month earlier by first targeting Polish banks . All these groups are following the same modus operandi perfected by groups like DD4BC and Armada Collective . These two groups appeared in the summer and autumn of 2015 and targeted companies worldwide . In January 2016 , Europol arrested suspects believed to be DD4BC members in Bosnia and Herzegovina . Following the arrests , both groups became inactive . After the demise of these two main groups , there was a wave of copycats [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] that used their respective reputation to extort payments Attack.Ransom from companies , in many cases without even possessing any DDoS capabilities .