Kaspersky is one of the most world-renowned security firms in the world, and they have been keeping a close eye on the ransomware threat. Their recent report indicates how The Netherlands and Belgium are in the top three of countries where ransomware can become a significant threat.

Quarterly Kaspersky Report

Even though a lot of people will argue ransomware is a global menace – and rightfully so – some regions are more prone to potential infection than others. Kaspersky, one of the world’s leading security firms, has released their latest quarterly report on ransomware threats. In this report, they identify the top countries at the risk of mass infection by this form of malware.

Based on their finds, roughly 1.8% of all Kaspersky users in The Netherlands have fallen victim to ransomware. To be more precise, they have been subjected to Bitcoin ransomware, which encrypts all of the files on a computer and then forces the user to pay a fee in cryptocurrency for restoring file access.

A similar trend was noted in Belgium, where 1.5% of all Kaspersky users have dealt with an infection. Italy is the clear leader, though, was as much as 3% of users dealing with ransomware. It is rather disconcerting a lot of European countries are represented in the top ten, rather than larger regions such as the US, China, or Russia.

Bitcoin ransomware is a grave threat to computer users all over the world, as TeslaCrypt and CBT-Locker are the biggest culprits. Cryptowall and Locky are making the top ten as well, which will hardly come as a surprise.  But there is a global trend to be noted as well, as the number of ransomware attacks has increased by a whopping 30% compared to Q4 2015.

Malware is a serious problem, but it is not the biggest threat to Internet users all over the world. Browser modifiers and Trojans are still the clear market leaders, for now, To put this into perspective: 7% of all web attacks are through a Trojan, whereas ransomware only accounts for 0.3% right now.

Source: Kaspersky

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