Anti-Ransomware Initiative, with McAfee, Kaspersky, Sees Rapid Partner Growth

**Editor’s Note: McAfee’s Brett Kelsey will deliver a keynote on ransomware and participate in the Channel Futures Forum Preconference at Channel Partners Evolution. Register now.**

The No More Ransom initiative, which was launched one year ago by McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, the Dutch National Police and Europol, has drawn more than 100 partners as major ransomware attacks continue to dominate the news, hitting businesses, governments and individuals globally.

The most recent private sector additions include: Abelssoft, Ascora GmbH, Barclays, Bitsight, Bournemouth University, CERT.BE, Claranet, CSA Singapore, ESTSecurity, Fortinet, Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, InterWorks, Korean Internet & Security Agency, TWCERT/CC, University of Porto and vpnMentor. Four new law enforcement agencies have also joined from Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong and Iran.

Ransomware attacks have soared since 2012, luring criminals with the promise of profit and ease of implementation, according to the initiative. More new ransomware families, variants of existing families and attacks are uncovered daily. The total number of people globally who encountered ransomware rose to nearly 2.6 million from April 2016 to March 2017, up 11.4 percent during the previous 12 months.

The indiscriminate WannaCry attacks in mid-May claimed more than 300,000 business victims across 150 countries in its first few days, crippling critical infrastructure and halting business operations globally.

The No More Ransom website now carries 54 decryption tools, provided by nine partners and covering 104 families of ransomware. So far, these tools have managed to decrypt more than 28,000 devices. The portal has had more than 1.3 million visitors to date, and on May 14 alone, during the WannaCry crisis, 150,000 people visited the website.

The No More Ransom platform now is available in 26 languages, with the most recent additions being Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish, Tamil and Thai.

Global law enforcement, in close cooperation with private partners, has ongoing investigations into ransomware criminals and infrastructure; however, prevention is undoubtedly the best ransomware defense, according to the initiative. Internet users need to avoid becoming a victim in the first place. Many up-to-date prevention tips are available at nomoreransom.org.