Hackers are making 1,425 per cent ROI on exploit kits and ransomware

And 81 per cent of victims remain unaware of breaches on their payment accounts

Hackers are making 1,425 return on investment from exploit kits and ransomware schemes, a report by Trustwave has suggested.

Both approaches are typically purchasable from the internet - often by attackers with minimal IT knowledge - but can apparently prove immensely lucrative for those who carry them out.

The average amount made by one of these attacks is, according to Trustwave, $84,100 after spending only $5,900 on the tools required to carry out the crime.

Exploit kits are designed to distribute malware through a victim's device through a web browser, while ransomware encrypts files on a system, with the decrypt code only offered up when a cash payment has been made.

Trustwave also found a 14 per cent rise in hackers targeting payment card data when compared to 2013, with 81 per cent of victims remaining unaware of the breach on their accounts until they were told by someone else.

All the UK's major banks and lenders have reported multiple data breach incidents to the ICO in the past two years, with 93 per cent of these breaches apparently caused by human error.

Both exploit kits and ransomware are typically initiated by social engineering - i.e. a user downloading an infected file after being encouraged to do so, by a persuasive email, for example.

Juniper Research believes that the cost of cyber crime and security breaches will reach $21 trillion by 2019.

Ransomware has been closely linked to this upward surge in exploitative hacking.

Cyber crime is becoming more professional, with so-called "package goods" far more easily available in organised commercial networks, and aided by the untraceable nature of the Bitcoin.

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