No More Ransom celebrates its first year

PRESS RELEASE

Woburn, MA – One year ago on July 25, 2016, the No More Ransom initiative was launched by the Dutch National Police, Europol, McAfee and Kaspersky Lab. Today, more than 100 partners have joined the initiative, as major ransomware attacks continue to dominate the news, hitting businesses, governments, and individuals all over the world.

The threat of ransomware is escalating

Ransomware attacks have soared since 2012, luring criminals with the promise of profit and ease of implementation. More new ransomware families, variants of existing families and attacks are uncovered every day. The total number of people worldwide who encountered ransomware rose to 2,581,026 from April 2016 to March 2017, an increase of 11.4 percent over the previous 12 months.

As the threat continues to evolve, becoming stealthier and more destructive, businesses are often targeted as they offer much higher potential returns than individuals. The indiscriminate WannaCry attacks in mid-May claimed more than 300,000 business victims across 150 countries in its first few days, crippling critical infrastructure and halting business operations worldwide.

No More Ransom’s first year in numbers

The No More Ransom site now carries 54 decryption tools, provided by nine partners and covering 104 families of ransomware. So far, these tools have managed to decrypt more than 28,000 devices.

The portal has had more than 1.3 million unique visitors to date. On May 14 alone, during the WannaCry crisis, 150,000 people visited the website.

The No More Ransom platform is now available in 26 languages, with the most recent additions being Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish, Tamil and Thai.

More than 100 partners: No boundaries between private, public or competitors

No More Ransom now has 109 partners. The most recent private sector additions include: Abelssoft, Ascora GmbH, Barclays, Bitsight, Bournemouth University, CERT.BE, Claranet, CSA Singapore, ESTSecurity, Fortinet, Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, InterWorks, IPA, Korean Internet & Security Agency, TWCERT/CC, LLC, University of Porto and vpnMentor. Four new law enforcement agencies have also joined from Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong and Iran.

The success of the No More Ransom initiative is a shared success, one that cannot be achieved by law enforcement or private industry alone. By joining forces, we enhance our ability to take on the criminals and stop them from harming people, businesses, and critical infrastructure, once and for all.

No better cure than prevention

Global law enforcement, in close cooperation with private partners, has ongoing investigations into ransomware criminals and infrastructure; however, prevention is undoubtedly the best ransomware defense. Internet users need to avoid becoming a victim in the first place. Many up-to-date prevention tips are available on www.nomoreransom.org. If you do become a victim, it is important not to pay the ransom and report your infection to the police.