Ransomware Spam Flood Targeted US Govt. Agencies, Educational Institutions

Between August 3 and August 9, security firm Proofpoint said it detected hundreds of thousands of spam email messages spreading the CrypFile2 ransomware, mainly to US-based government agencies and educational institutions.

The campaign started very strong on the first day when Proofpoint said it detected hundreds of thousands of messages. The spam flood seems to have died down during the following days, but the security vendor says it still detected thousands of messages each day until August 9.

Attackers targeted US government agencies

Most of these spam emails were sent to email addresses belonging to state and local government agencies, followed by K-12 educational institutions.

Attackers targeted other verticals, but to a lesser degree compared to these three. These include organizations from the healthcare sector, post-secondary educational institutions, telecommunications companies, insurance companies, and technology firms.

What was stran...