Crypto trojans: waves of attack are on the increase

Retarus is still observing new Trojan attacks: An analysis for the previous week has shown that an average of one in four business e-mails is now infected. This also tallies with the findings of a recently published study by the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI). According to the study, about one third of all businesses has experienced ransomware attacks in the last six months. Blackmail trojans such as Locky and TeslaCrypt were the most frequent among these. They encrypt files on affected computers. The cyber criminals then demand a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key. In 75% of cases, the blackmail trojans entered the computer via infected e-mail attachments. In some cases, the attacks had serious consequences: even though 70% of the affected businesses reported that only individual workplace computers were infected, partial IT infrastructure failure was still reported in 22% of the cases, with at least 11% of those questioned suffering substantial losses of important data.

Improved protection thanks to fourfold scan

In order to protect themselves against crypto trojans such as Locky or TeslaCrypt, e-mail users need to be particularly vigilant. The Retarus safety experts recommend that businesses update their virus protection software to the latest version. No virus protection software can offer 100% protection from such attacks as crypto trojans can morph their structure quickly and frequently, with the ability to assume the most diverse forms at lightning speed. Nevertheless, security can be boosted substantially with the fourfold virus scan from Retarus E-Mail Security Services: These services access several scanners in parallel, thereby continuously expanding their filter rules, which means they can always offer the latest protection levels. You can find out more about Retarus E-Mail Security Services here or directly at your local contact person.