Ransomware experienced an upsurge in March, propelled by an explosion in botnet activity, while a malicious Internet Explorer attack is spreading rapidly across the globe, according to a Fortinet Threatscape Report released Thursday.
One of the biggest threats this month was the emergence of an SMS-based ransomware attack, according to the Fortinet Threatscape report. The attack, dubbed DigiPog, is an SMS blocker that locks out a system and kills off popular applications such as IE and FireFox. To unblock the system, a user will be required to enter a code into a provided field, obtained by sending an SMS message to a provided premium number. In exchange, the attackers grant the victim the code needed to unlock and use their system, experts said.