The average ransomware attack Attack.Ransom yielded $ 1,077 last year , new research shows , representing a 266 percent spike from a year earlier . The reason for the landmark year for hackers ? Many ransomware victims readily pay Attack.Ransom the price . The number of attacks , varieties of distinct malware and money lost ballooned as ransomware became one of the top tactics of attackers , according to new research from the security firm Symantec . Some of the most high-profile ransomware incidents Attack.Ransom of the last year include San Francisco ’ s Muni getting hit Attack.Ransom , Washington D.C. ’ s police department being breached Attack.Databreach just before inauguration and a Los Angeles college paying Attack.Ransom a $ 28,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . Hoping to turn the tide against the billion-dollar ransomware industry , last year the FBI urged businesses to alert authorities and not pay up Attack.Ransom . Instead , most keep attacks Attack.Ransom a secret , paying off Attack.Ransom hackers 70 percent of the time . That behavior only increases the sweet spot for demands Attack.Ransom , as criminals seek the highest possible ransom Attack.Ransom while trying to avoid the attention of law enforcement . Economists say hackers who apply more sophisticated pricing techniques “ could lead to dramatic increases in profits at relatively little costs . ” The highest demand Attack.Ransom seen in public during the last was $ 28,730 from MIRCOP ransomware . It ’ s not clear if anyone actually paid off Attack.Ransom those specific hackers . In private , however , higher ransoms Attack.Ransom are finding success when hackers successfully target the right companies . An IBM Security study from December 2016 found that over half of the businesses they surveyed said they had already paid Attack.Ransom over $ 10,000 in ransom Attack.Ransom while 20 percent said they ’ d paid Attack.Ransom over $ 40,000 . Globally , 34 percent of victims end up paying ransom Attack.Ransom . American victims , however , pay at a rate of 64 percent , according to Norton . “ That ’ s a phenomenal number , ” Symantec ’ s Kevin Haley told CyberScoop . “ I always compare it to direct mail where if you get a 1 percent rate you ’ re doing really good . These guys get a 34 percent return rate . Extortion really pays Attack.Ransom . ” The twist of the knife comes when only 47 percent of victims who pay the ransom Attack.Ransom actually recover any files . “ If so many people are willing to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , there ’ s no reason for the price to come down , ” Haley said . “ In fact , it ’ s only going to go up . We may see that average go even higher until that price ceiling is discovered when so many people aren ’ t willing to pay that much . But we haven ’ t hit it yet . ”

Officials based at the City of Del Rio , in Texas , were forced to abandon electronic services and switch to pen and paper after a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom effectively closed down City Hall servers . City representatives disclosed the cyberattack last week . The city was struck Attack.Ransom by the ransomware on Thursday , leading to all servers being disabled to prevent further spread . Del Rio 's Management Information Services ( MIS ) department then attempted to isolate the malware by turning off all Internet connections for other city departments . In turn , this prevented any members of staff from logging into government systems . As a result , employees of each department were forced to use pen and paper in their work and go back to manual entry for transactions taking place -- as and when they could considering there was no access to historical records -- while the ransomware was contained . City officials have informed the FBI of the cyberattack and the Secret Service has now become involved in attempts to find out who is responsible . It is not known at present who is behind the ransomware , what kind of malware is at fault , or whether or not any personal data has been compromised Attack.Databreach . The Texan city has also not revealed how much the ransomware demanded in payment Attack.Ransom , as is usually the case with this particular form of malware . Ransoms Attack.Ransom are usually requested in return for a decryption key -- which may or may not work -- in order to unlock encrypted systems and restore access . However , a Del Rio City Hall spokeswoman did reveal that the malware is somewhat unusual , as the ransom note posted to roughly 30 - 45 PCs contained a phone number to be used to pay the blackmail Attack.Ransom fee . Most of the time , a note will be posted on a landing page containing instructions for paying ransom Attack.Ransom in cryptocurrency and victims will be given a wallet address , rather than a means to directly call the malware 's operator . `` The City is diligently working on finding the best solution to resolve this situation and restore the system , '' an official statement reads . `` We ask the public to be patient with us as we may be slower in processing requests at this time . ''

However , modern ransomware certainly merits a classification as one of the most evolving sectors of cybercrime in 2017 . Though it is quite difficult to calculate the overall damage caused by ransomware in 2016 , some researchers state that cybercriminals received over $ 1 billion in ransom payments Attack.Ransom last year . Others mention a 3,500 % increase in the criminal use of infrastructure that helps run ransomware campaigns . Carbon Black says that ransomware is the fastest growing malware across industries , up 50 % in 2016 . Technology ( 218 % ) , utilities and energy ( 112 % ) and banking ( 93 % ) saw the highest year-on-year ransomware growth last year . Due to an important lack of qualified technical personnel and other resources , law enforcement agencies are globally unprepared to detect , prevent and prosecute this type of digital crime . Moreover , more and more cases of ransom payment Attack.Ransom by the police have become public , while those police officers who dare to resist take a substantive risk . There is the Texas police who lost eight years of their investigative work and all of the evidence by refusing to pay Attack.Ransom cybercriminals . This sad statistic explains why the majority of despaired victims of cybercrime fail to report it to the law enforcement agencies . Attackers can easily rent a Ransomware-as-a-Service ( RaaS ) infrastructure for as low as $ 39.99 per month , making up to $ 195,000 of monthly profit without much effort in comparison to other niches of digital fraud and crime . The business of ransomware has become so attractive that some cybercriminals don ’ t even bother to actually encrypt the data , but just extort money Attack.Ransom from their victims with fake malware . The victims are so scared by media stories about ransomware , combined with law enforcement agencies ’ inability to protect them or at least to punish the offenders , that they usually pay . The new generation of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom IoT and smart devices , locking not only mobiles and smart TVs , but also doors in hotels and air conditioning systems in luxury smart houses . Criminals switch from file encryption to database encryption and web applications , demonstrating a great scalability of ransomware tactics . To increase their profits , hacking teams behind the ransomware campaigns now threaten to send the victim ’ s sensitive data to all of their contacts instead of just deleting it . Cryptocurrencies allow attackers to receive online payments almost without any risk of being traced and prosecuted . Despite the media hype around blockchain ’ s ability to reinvent and improve the world , so far only the cybercriminals have entirely leveraged the full potential of this emerging technology . A simple business model , high profits , accessibility and affordability of resources to deploy large-scale attacking campaigns , and low risks in comparison to other sectors of ( cyber ) crime , assure the flourishing future of ransomware . All of this without mentioning the problem of global inequality actually causing the cybercrime , which I briefly described in Forbes recently . Nonetheless , it does not mean that organizations should give up . The FBI confirms the skyrocketing problem of ransomware , but suggests relying on prevention rather than paying ransom Attack.Ransom to the criminals . PwC also suggests to plan and prepare the organization to this kind of incident in order to have internal capabilities to recover without suffering important financial losses . Some cybersecurity vendors , like SentinelOne , contractually guarantee protection and provide a financial insurance for their clients .