Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report for 2017 shows big growth in the reported number of ransomware attacks and incidents involving cyberespionage.

A new ransomware strain called Mamba opts to encrypts hard drives rather than individual files and folders stored on the local disk.

The Petya ransomware strain signaled a new escalation for crypto-malware when it surfaced in March. For the first time, ransomware went beyond encrypting files on local and shared drives and instead set its sights on locking up the Master File Table on compromised machines. Petya did have its shortcomings and before long, researchers were able...