Ransomware is ‘Modern-Day Extortion’, Says McAfee CEO

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The chief executive of cybersecurity firm McAfee has labelled ransomware as the modern day answer to extortion.

Speaking to CNBC, McAfee chief executive Christopher D. Young told CNBC:

It is today’s modern-day extortion, and it’s something that criminals are going to continue to drive because they can make money, and that’s something that we’re very concerned about.

The cybersecurity executive’s comments come within a year after the “WannaCry” ransomware targeted a plethora of businesses, government entities, corporations and even the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

WannaCry, which truly proved the first global cybersecurity threat that indiscriminately targeted all PCs, was followed up by another strain called NotPetya, a strain of ransomware that resulted in hundreds of millions in loses of shipping giant Maersk.

Despite the growing threat, McAfee CEO Young insisted that the cybersecurity industry was better equipped to combat ransomware attacks in 2018.

 “As an industry, we are stopping a lot more ransomware attacks today than we were in previous years, but the rate of growth in ransomware has been exponential,” he said.

He notably added:

“But we are better at spotting the attacks, we’re using behavioral tools to help us identify when a ransomware attack might be happening.”

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