Ransomware continues to grow very rapidly, with the number of new detected samples rising 58% in Q2 2015

Sep 1, 2015 04:31 GMT  ·  By

Intel Security (formerly McAfee) has released their quarterly Threats Report and the main conclusion is that ransomware continues to grow at a very rapid pace.

According to Intel's researchers, the total number of detected ransomware samples grew 127% compared to last year.

Additionally, in Q2 around 1.2 million new ransomware samples were identified, 58% more compared to the previous quarter (Q1).

A growth of 12% was also recorded in the case of total malware samples, Intel Security now managing a database of 433 million malware samples.

While fewer malware samples were detected in Q2 compared to Q1, most of it was mobile malware, which grew 17% compared to the previous report.

Across the globe, the biggest growth in mobile malware infections was recorded in Africa, followed by South America and Asia.

Despite the higher values of detected mobile malware samples, infection rates have reached their all-time low in the past 2 years.

The other type of malware which saw a big increase is rootkit malware, Intel Security recording over 50,000 new samples, and detecting a total of over 1.6 million samples in the past three months.

While Web-based threats saw a very low decrease of values, new spam URLs and their domains leaped 380% compared to Q1, mainly due to the proliferation of domain generation algorithms (DGAs).

The official Intel Security Threats Report is available for download for anyone interested.

Total ransomware
Total ransomware

Intel Security Threats Report 2015 Q2 (18 Images)

New mobile malware
Total mobile malwareRegional mobile malware infection rates
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