Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Don’t open that! 93 percent of phishing emails are now ransomware

A new report suggests as much as 93 percent of all phishing emails that look to trick users into clicking a nefarious link or open a dangerous attachment, attempt to install ransomware on the user’s system. This suggests that the practice of encrypting files and demanding a ransom proves to be the most profitable way to scam PC users into giving up some coin.

This data comes out of threat management company PhishMe, which noted that phishing attacks riddled with ransomware have gone up from 56 percent of the total attacks in December 2015, to this new height just over six months later. That’s a huge increase, and shows that the malware trend is moving in one very specific direction.

Recommended Videos

But why? Adware, spyware, and other forms of nasty software have been prevalent for the better part of two decades. Why the sudden switch to this new attack format?

Protect all your hardware with Norton Security Premium

Mainly it’s because ransomware is easy. If a user pays up, you have money instantly. With stolen details they need to be sold, or credit cards used, which could potentially reveal the hacker. Ransomware is safer for them, and faster.

“If you look at the price point of paying the ransom, it is rarely more than 1 or 2 bitcoin, that’s $400 to $800, maybe $1,000 depending on the exchange rate,” said Brendan Griffin, a threat intelligence manager at PhishMe. “That’s a relatively low price point for a small to medium business.”

That’s a key point of this report too, that businesses are being targeted more by ransomware attacks. While there might be more of an emotional tie to documents and data with personal users, there is always a chance that they don’t have the technical know how to acquire the bitcoin usually required for payment. They are also less likely to have the funds to comply.

When it comes to most businesses though, a couple of bitcoins is a drop in the bucket. Ironically, it’s probably cheaper to just pay up (if indeed the files are returned to a working state) than it would be to pay someone to recover them from a back up or other means.

The report also suggests that ransomware is becoming easier to manage and distribute too, with ready-made kits allowing even those with little programming knowledge the chance to send out file-encrypting programs into the wild. Perhaps that’s why we’ve even seen some groups trying to recruit new “affiliates” for their scams.

This ease of use is leading to a more varied use of the nefarious technology too. Those behind it are trying “soft-targeted” phishing scams according to CSOOnline. This involves a blending of direct targeted email, using specific markers for a person such as their name or job title, but without trying too hard to appeal, which would perhaps set off someone more wary.

Unfortunately there aren’t any great methods of dealing with a ransomware attack just yet. Paying up is a bad idea, as it just encourages the practice. Our best suggestion would be to just back up everything important to you several times. It’s the only way to be secure from such an attack.

Jon Martindale
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
Check your expectations — Nvidia’s RTX 50-series benchmarks don’t tell the full story
Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang showing off the RTX 5090 at CES 2025.

Nvidia just revealed its range of RTX 50-series GPUs at CES 2025, and made some big performance claims. The company says that the flagship RTX 5090 is twice as fast as last gen's RTX 4090, and it's not alone. Across all of the benchmarks Nvidia shared, from the RTX 5090 down to the RTX 5070, Nvidia says the new GPUs are twice as fast as their last-gen counterparts.

We normally don't see that kind of generational uplift. Did Nvidia put some sort of magical GPU dust into its new graphics cards? If you look closely at the benchmarks, it becomes clear that, yes, Nvidia did exactly that. And that magical GPU dust is called DLSS 4.

Read more
I don’t understand HP’s new tiny gaming desktop
The HP Omen 16L gaming desktop sitting on a desk.

Outside of dedicated mini PCs like the ROG NUC 970, we don't see a lot of small form factor (SFF) desktops from mainstream brands. But HP has an exciting SFF option on its hands for CES 2025. It's the Omen 16L, which is the smallest gaming desktop HP has ever made, and it can pack a decent punch with graphics card options up to an RTX 4060 Ti or RX 7600. I'm just scratching my head at the processor options.

Like most Omen desktops, you have a lot of spec options with the Omen 16L. In terms of Intel, you can stick with the last-gen Core i5-14400 or Core i7-14700, or you can go with Intel's newer Arrow Lake offerings -- either the Core Ultra 7 265 or Core Ultra 5 225. It's the AMD options that are really strange, though. If you go with Team Red, you're stuck with either a Ryzen 5 8500G or Ryzen 7 8700G. HP is also offering the F-series versions of these processors, which lack integrated graphics.

Read more
Don’t get your hopes up for next-gen GPUs just yet
Two RTX 4060 graphics cards stacked on top of each other.

The list of the best graphics cards will probably look a lot different in a month's time. We're standing on the edge of the next generation of graphics cards, and it looks like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all have big plans in store. At least from the conversations I've had, all eyes are on what the next generation of graphics cards has to offer before making an upgrade decision.

That's generally good advice -- if new hardware is about to launch, there isn't much reason to spend up for last-gen components. You'll likely pay a higher price, and you could be missing out on some big performance gains. This generation, however, it's important to temper expectations. Although the next generation of graphics cards is exciting, it probably won't be a reality for most gamers anytime soon.
Always start with the flagships

Read more