98% cryptocurrency ransom payments were made in Bitcoin; report

According to the report published by Coveware on the 15^th of April, the greatest share of ransomware payments comes from Bitcoin.

The Q1-2019 Global Ransomware Marketplace report is said to be based on a collection of data on ransomware from the cases that were handled by the Incident Response Team at Coveware. This report shows a distinct rise in the ransom that threat actors ask for.

The average ransom demanded for the apparent delivery of a tool to decrypt the malware affected system and repair damage inflicted upon it, has increased by eighty nine percent (89%) from the median six thousand seven hundred and thirty three dollars ($6,733) as reported in the Q4 2018, to twelve thousand seven hundred and sixty two dollars ($12,762) reported in the Q1 2019.

Ninety-eight (98%) percent of the ransom paid for repairing the damaged systems was payable in BTC.

In this report, it is stated that the handling of cryptocurrency is still a major cause of trouble for the victims and it is not likely for the ransomware to shift towards another digital currency since they are relatively new and more difficult to handle.

This report also mentions that threat actors have little need to transition from BTC as they do not find it difficult to use mixed services and migrating to more privacy-based cryptocurrencies. So, privacy coins are merely used for two percent of the payments to threat actors.

Almost twenty percent (20%) of the market is accounted for by a ransomware known as GrandCrab, which, according to Coveware data, was the one and only strain that prevailed where the payment was accepted in BTC or DASH by threat actors.

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