More than two years after the historic WannaCry ransomware campaign rocked the world, rapidly locking down data on more than 200,000 Windows machines in 150 countries, the known and preventable variant remains by far the most commonly detected ransomware: About 10 times as many machines were found targeted by WannaCry in the first half of this year than all other ransomware variants combined.
WannaCry exploits an old SMB vulnerability that Microsoft patched in 2017, so the machines where WannaCry attacks were detected are mostly outdated Windows 7 systems – some 95% of them, according to attack attempts detected and stopped by Trend Micro's Smart Protection Network.
"The crooks running ransomware schemes are using a reliable tool – WannaCry – for their crimes. There's no innovation or deep thought. It's just a way for them to steal," says Bill Malik, vice president of infrastructure strategies at Trend Micro, whose midyear security report, published today, includes the ransomware data.
These machines are mostly enterprise Windows machines in manufacturing, government, education, and healthcare, not consumer devices, Trend Micro's telemetry shows. "Those machines, deployed years ago, are mission-critical in those industries, so the victims are willing to pay to have their systems and data back," Malik notes.
The security firm also found WannaCry targeting machines in finance, technology, energy, food and beverage, and oil and gas organizations.
At the same time, the number of overall ransomware variants dropped dramatically in the first half of 2019, according to Trend Micro's report, A total of 118 new ransomware families emerged in the ..
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