Ransomware is rapidly on the rise and four industry sectors are taking the largest hit, accounting for 77% of the action, according to NTT Security's 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report released today.
The business and professional services sector accounted for 28% of the ransomware attacks, followed by government at 19%, and healthcare and the retail sectors both coming in at 15%, the report noted.
Phishing was the most popular vehicle used to spread ransomware, and 73% of all malware attacks in general began with phishing messages sent to organizations. And when it comes to phishing attacks, the U.S. took the brunt of the abuse, capturing 41% of the nefarious action, while the Netherlands accounted for 38% and France a mere 5%.
NTT Security also found that only 25 passwords accounted for one-third of all authentication attempts made last year against the security firm's honeypots.
Read more about the 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report here.