Ransomware Payments: Where Have All the Bitcoins Gone?


… [A] new study due to be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in May in San Francisco contains new insights into the economy and infrastructure behind ransomware, which may help information security experts to design better defenses against it. … Over the two-year period covered by the study, the researchers conclude that at least $16 million in ransoms was paid by 19,750 likely victims. … Damon McCoy, an assistant professor in the computer science and engineering department at New York University [Tandon School of Engineering] and one of the study's 10 co-authors, says the study is a very conservative snapshot of the ransomware economy. “It's definitely an underestimate, but it's nice in that it's a rigorous underestimate.”

 

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