Today, Symantec released new research highlighting the rapid expansion of ransomware scams throughout Western Europe, the United States and Canada. While attack occurrences in Australia have been comparatively low to date, global trends indicate it becoming a future target. The research conservatively estimates that cybercriminals are extorting over $5 million a year from victims of this threat. The full research can be read here: http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/ransomware-a-growing-menace.pdf

The research shows that up to 2.9 percent of victims end up paying ransoms. That number is significant given fees range up to $460 and a single gang was observed attempting to infect 495,000 computers over just an 18 day period. It also highlights the professionalization of ransomware as it becomes a popular ploy among numerous cybercrime gangs. Of particular note is the use of social engineering to convince users that they are being required to pay a fine by local law enforcement for browsing illicit materials.

Closely tied to the topic of ransomware, Symantec also released its security predictions for 2013 today. One of the key forecasts is that ransomware will surpass fake AV as the premiere cybercrime strategy in the coming year. Additional predictions revolve around:

• Conflicts      between nations, organizations and individuals will predominately take      place in the cyber world
• As      users shift to mobile and cloud so will attackers, especially exploiting      Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• Certificates      used by mobile devices and applications
• Madware      continues to spike – particularly as companies seek to drive mobile ad      revenue
• New      security dangers & tricks for consumers on social networks

You can read more about Symantec predictions here: http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/top-5-security-predictions-2013-symantec