'Ransomware Has Very Quickly Become The Most Successful And Common Form Of Cyber Crime'

11:52

May 01, 2018

Meghna Chakrabarti, Suzie Tapson

In this Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 photo illustration, hands type on a computer keyboard in Los Angeles. In the wake of the Heartbleed security threat, many security experts recommend a second layer of authentication _ typically in the form of a numeric code sent as a text message. You enter that code on the website to verify that it’s really you and not a hacker who doesn’t have your phone. (AP)

"Ransomware has very quickly become the most successful and common form of cyber crime," according to Israel Barak, chief information security officer at Cybereason, a Boston-based cyber security firm. The FBI estimated that ransomware payments hit $1 billion in the U.S. in 2016, and that figure only counts the attacks that were reported so the actual cost is likely to be much higher.

The Leominster Public School system is the latest local victim and school officials made the decision to pay $10,000 in bitcoin to their attacker.

Guest

Israel Barak, chief information security officer at Cybereason. He tweets @israel_barak.

This segment aired on May 1, 2018.

'Ransomware Has Very Quickly Become The Most Successful And Common Form Of Cyber Crime'

Guest

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