As ransomware spreads, victimization rates escalate. A Finnish cybersecurity firm's F-Secure State of Cyber Security 2017 report stated that there was only one ransomware "variant" in 2012. This increased to 35 in 2015 and 193 in 2016.(1) Individuals, corporations, banks, educational establishments, hospitals, and government agencies have all been held hostage by ransomware and blackmailed into paying out in crypto-currency—typically, bitcoin—to retrieve their data.(2)
