Data theft and ransomware attacks are two very common threats on the network today. Hackers set their sights on making profit at the expense of victims whom it manages to infect with malware or deceive through social engineering methods. There are many attacks that we can find on the Internet. Today we echo a news story that talks about it. Do cyber criminals prefer data theft or ransomware attacks ?
Data theft vs ransomware, two very present threats
First of all, it must be clear that both data theft and ransomware are two types of threats that are very present on the Internet . Hackers constantly hone their techniques with the goal of stealing information, infecting systems, and ultimately profiting.
Now, cybercriminals often have preferences for what gives them the most profit and also for what is most successful. Not all attacks are created equal and not all have an equal effectiveness rate. Sometimes there are certain threats that are more successful.
According to a report by Trustwave , hackers prefer ransomware over data theft. It is true that the latter continues to play a fundamental role in the attacks today. Cyber criminals will always try to steal information from users, as this has great value. However, preferred by these attackers is ransomware.
As we know, ransomware is the type of threat that seeks to encrypt users’ files . It basically consists of making the victim unable to access the documents and files that he has on the system. In exchange for enabling them again they will ask for a ransom. In this way they obtain an economic benefit.
Huge increase in ransomware in the last year
If we talk about concrete data, ransomware represented 18% of all attacks during 2019. This figure is much higher compared to the previous year, where it barely represented 4%.
From Trustwave indicate that ransomware is a simple method by hackers to achieve financial gain . It has a higher performance if we compare the complexity of carrying out the attacks with the benefit obtained. This makes cybercriminals prefer ransomware as their favorite method of data theft today.
What has been one of the reasons why cybercriminals prefer ransomware to data theft? As indicated in this report, hackers prefer ransomware since with data theft it is more difficult to obtain economic benefits. That is, even if they manage to steal information from users or companies, it is not so easy to sell them and really make a financial profit unlike ransomware, where victims usually pay more.
In short, we can say that ransomware is nowadays widely used by hackers. This means that we must always take precautions. That is why we leave you an article where we give some tips on how to avoid ransomware .