Europol recently announced the 4^th anniversary of the No More Ransom initiative. To date, the initiative is thought to have helped over 4 million victims in fighting back against threat actors.

John Fokker, Head of Cyber Investigations at McAfee, made the following comment :

“The fourth anniversary of the No More Ransom initiative marks an important milestone in the fight against ransomware. In a world where cybercriminals are constantly seeking new weaknesses in systems to turn into profits, ransomware continues to be a lucrative business. This prospect is especially worrying given the rise of synergistic threats, where malware is written to include various malicious components with the intention of blurring the vision of the primary objective – just as a smokescreen would.

“As ransomware threats evolve, our advice for victims is simple: always seek professional advice when you are faced with a targeted ransomware attack. The tools available on the No More Ransom website provide a great wealth of knowledge for all to use in the fight back against this extortive practice.

“Organisations should also remember to do their due diligence when it comes to securing systems and training employees: social engineering is still an incredibly efficient tactic for criminals looking to infect systems. But ultimately, when it comes to fighting ransomware, we will need to continue working together to keep pace with attackers – whether that’s coordination between public and private organisations, sharing of threat intelligence or education and training within individual businesses.”