Smartphone ransomware, Italy among the most affected countries in 2016

Worse than us, among the Old Continent nations analyzed by Kaspersky Lab's survey, only Germany and the United Kingdom did

Of the various forms of malware and viruses that continue to grip cybersecurity, ransomware (the ransom virus) is probably the most dangerous. Kaspersky Lab, a cybersecurity expert firm, conducted research on the ransomware that hit mobile devices between 2016 and 2017. And Italy was found to be one of the most infected European countries.

Worse than us, among the Old Continent nations analyzed by Kaspersky Lab's survey, only Germany did, which with 15.46% recorded the highest percentage of ransomware, and the United Kingdom with 13, 37%. Globally, the top spot goes to the United States (18.65%), whose users' mobile devices were most affected by the ransomware virus. In second place, again taking into account the worldwide distribution of breaches, we find Canada (17.97%). The figure is interesting, especially when compared with the previous year. In the period 2015-2016 to occupy the first step, among the countries that suffered most from ransomware attacks on mobile devices, had been Germany, now dropped to third place.

Mobile ransomware 2017: the users affected most in the first three months

Continuing with the analysis of Kaspersky Lab, we note that it is the first quarter of 2017 the period in which users were affected by ransomware most frequently. After that, the average number of attacks returned to the levels recorded in the two years of the survey. A figure that, however, should by no means lower the guard.

Preferred targets of ransomware: rich countries

According to the company expert in cybersecurity solutions, hackers are targeting more richer countries, which have more financial resources and, above all, are not sufficiently able to cope with threats. And, therefore, easy prey for cyber criminals.

Kaspersky Lab's 2017 study, then, provides further interesting data. In the period analyzed (April 2016 - March 2017), in contrast to the previous year (April 2015 - March 2016), the number of victims who were forced, in some way, to deal with ransomware increased by 11.4%. So did the amount of people affected by the ransomware virus. Overall, users infected by mobile ransomware between April 2016 and March 2017 have, however, dropped by 4.62%.

As for the 10 countries that have been most attacked by computer ransomware, at the top is Italy, which ranks behind Turkey, Vietnam and India.