According to the FBI, Cryptowall developers have earned $18 million from the US alone to date.
The Cryptolocker ransomware family has been described as one of the most prolific and capable since it was first detected in April 2014.
The global damage caused according to the US agency is much greater. Victims from Australia account for about half of Cryptowall's revenue, while North America accounts for a quarter.
The feds report that the US Internet Crime Complaints Commission has received 992 complaints to date from ransomware victims demanding ransom amounts ranging from $200 to $10,000.
“Many of the victims are burdened with additional costs associated with protecting their network, network countermeasures, loss of productivity, legal fees, IT services, purchasing monitoring services and credit for their employees and/or customers,” the FBI warning states.
“Between April 2014 and June 2015, IC3 received 992 Cryptowall complaints, with total damages of over $18,000,000.”
“These financial fraud schemes target both individuals and businesses, and are usually very successful, having a significant impact on victims.”
Cryptowall, like other ransomware malware, is delivered via spam and exploit kits to encrypt whatever it finds, in the hope that some of it is valuable. Victims must pay a ransom to regain access to their files.
Those who refuse to pay the ransom, in addition to losing their files forever, may also lose their login credentials for various accounts, since the FAREIT trojan was recently discovered to accompany Cryptowall.
