Firms being held to actual ransom by a new wave of cyber criminals
Ransomware attacks - when a company’s data is encrypted and they are blackmailed for the key - is now a $1 trillion industry, and attacks are on the rise, writes Emmet Ryan
One of Ireland’s top IT security firms paid out €500,000 worth of bitcoin in ransom for its clients in just the first six weeks of 2019.
Smarttech247, which is headquartered in Cork, had to do this due to an increase in the sophistication of attacks from cyber criminals.
“Cybersecurity is a global issue now. It’s insane the ramifications it’s having,” Ronan Murphy, chief executive of Smarttech247, told The Sunday Business Post.
“From a ...
