While almost all ransomware infections are opportunistic, disseminated through indiscriminate infection vectors such as those discussed above, in a few very rare instances cyber threat actors specifically target a victim. In other instances, malware is disseminated through malvertising and drive-by downloads, which do not require user engagement for the infection to be successful. The majority of ransomware is propagated through user-initiated actions such as clicking on a malicious link in a spam e-mail or visiting a malicious or compromised website. Victims are at risk of losing their files, but may also experience financial loss due to paying the ransom, lost productivity, IT costs, legal fees, network modifications, and/or the purchase of credit monitoring services for employees/customers. Ransomware variants almost always opportunistically target victims, infecting an array of devices from computers to smartphones. Once access to the system is blocked, the ransomware demands a ransom in order to unlock the files, frequently $200 – $3,000 in bitcoins, though other currencies and gift cards are occasionally reported. Most of the current ransomware variants encrypt files on the infected system/network (crypto ransomware), although a few variants are known to erase files or block access to the system using other methods (locker ransomware). businesses and individuals during the past two years. Ransomware is a type of malware that has become a significant threat to U.S.
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