$400 Philadelphia Ransomware Complete With a Marketing Video

So, I ran across this today in an article describing yet another RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) variant called Philadelphia. While not up there in distribution with the likes of Cerber or Locky, it has a pretty aggressive advertising campaign and even includes a nicely made YouTube video lauding its wonderful features and customization.

RaaS is one big reason why ransomware keeps growing and expanding. Folks with little or no technical experience can get in the game for little or no money. Variants such as “Dot” are $0 with a 50/50 split on profits. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Until we stop paying these ransoms and these folks stop making money hand-over-fist, this threat will continue to grow and victimize others. Folks, make sure you have good backups in place and teach people how to identify phishing emails. We need this to stop.

Do you have a ransomware story? Share it in the comments!


Erich Kron is the Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4, and has over 20 years’ experience in the medical, aerospace manufacturing and defense fields. He is the former security manager for the US Army 2nd Regional Cyber Center-Western Hemisphere.

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