High-tech extortion attacks nearly doubled in Q1: report

Berlin

HIGH-TECH extortion schemes nearly doubled in the first three months of 2015, while attacks on Adobe Flash software used in streaming media and casual game sites quadrupled, a global report said on Tuesday.

Intel Corp's McAfee Labs Threats Report for May found that ransomware surged 165 per cent in the first quarter, rebounding from a slight dip earlier in 2014 when police agencies worldwide staged a coordinated crackdown to knock out a major ransomware network.