Over two years after the global WannaCry infection, the infamous worm continues to be the most detected ransomware variant out there, a new Trend Micro study shows. In the first six months of this year, WannaCry was detected around 10 times more frequently than the combined total for all other ransomware strains, despite the fact that WannaCry takes advantage of a vulnerability that has been patched since 2017.
The vast majority (95%) of WannaCry attacks target unpatched Windows 7 machines. According to the data, these vulnerable devices are mostly found in manufacturing, government, education, and healthcare, where they are “mission-critical,” which means that “victims are willing to pay to have their systems and data back,” Bill Malik of Trend Micro elaborated. The number of new ransomware strains dropped significantly from 118 in the first half of last year to 47 in H1 2019. According to the report, this has to do with a growing recognition among threat actors that quality is more important than quantity.
Read more: WannaCry Remains No. 1 Ransomware Weapon