As if the thought of a data breach isn’t terrifying enough, retailers have another significant cybersecurity threat looming over them: Ransomware. As the name suggests, ransomware is a type of malware that takes a device hostage, abducting functions and data and then demanding payment of some form from users.
Between 2014 and 2015, the number of ransomware attacks rose an expected 19 percent ― but last year, there were at least 638 million instances of ransomware infections, which was 167 times higher than 2015. Experts are predicting 2017 to be even worse.
