List of The Most Sophisticated Ransomware Attacks in Last Five Years

 

We have been observing ransomware attacks that have become nightmare to global companies whose data means everything – bloodline. Despites having an online data backup solution, they fail to keep it safe from the sophisticated ransomware attacks. Over the past 5 years, ransomware variant has shown no mercy on global companies, PC users, health organizations, educational institutions or government agencies. Unfortunately, top secret spy agencies and international intrigues are also not out of the coverage of ransomware attacks. We have seen impossible and witnessed kneeling big databases companies like MangoDB in front of remote hackers. MangoDB is ransacked – now 27,000 databases hit in mass ransomware attack.

Now, it is the time to enlighten our visitors on the history of ransomware attacks. We are presenting a list of the most sophisticated ransomware attacks which took place in last five years. The list is brand new formed by our security research team at RMV.

List of the most sophisticated ransomware attacks:

  • CrytoLocker – Back in 2013, Windows OS users witnessed the outburst of CryptoLocker on a large scale. The malware developers had sophisticated plan to deliver the executable/payload through spam email attachments. According Avast research report, this ransomware was responsible for hitting over 5,00,000 Windows-machines. Nevertheless to mention, it used a custom version of RSA encryption for sealing up victims’ data.

  • TelsaCrypt – Next, what we had to witness was TelsaCrypt attack which was accounted to 48% of ransomware attacks back in 2016. We take this malware as the predecessor of CryptoLocker family. The ransomware was coded to encrypt ancillary file generated with commonly used software like Web Clients, Microsoft Office, Database software, video games, Maps etc. Luckily, in June 2016 its developers provided master decryption key to decode encrypted files by TelsaCrypt for free and left a statement that they were done with the malware.

  • SimpleLocker – The cryptomalware was especially crafted to extort money from Android users. Its developers were successful in the mass attack, targeted over 1,50,000 Android smartphones located in US and Eastern Europe.

  • WannaCry – The most sophisticate ransomware that we witness in history of ransomware is – WannaCry ransomware outbreak in the wild. Its developers from North Korea targeted Windows machines in more than 150 counties on the planet Earth. The WannaCry ransomware held the encoded data as hostage until a ransom payment of 300 USD was paid to the cyber thieves. There were 2,50,000 machines under the ransomware attack. It became quit famous. Even the Microsoft had no choice rather than releasing a security patch update for Windows XP to Win 10 users.

  • Petya/NotPetya – In the middle of 2017, Windows machines once again, were hit by a sophisticated ransomware named Petya/NotPetya. Its attack was performed especially in Ukraine and some parts of Europe as well. Russian hackers hot more than 66,000 machines in Ukraine including the water and electricity department. The ransomware was later declared as not Petya variant.

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