Online virus alerts, social media alerts and warnings are not a new phenomenon.
They have been used to warn people to stay away from certain parts of the internet.
But in the past few months, they have become more prominent, with news organisations, academics and security experts pointing to the spread of ransomware and other cyberattacks as an increasing threat.
But it is not just the ransomware attacks that are raising alarm bells.
In December, security researchers from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) released a study of ransomware attacks on the internet, showing that they had increased dramatically in the last two years.
The report found that over the last six months, the ransomware outbreak in the US had increased by 1,500 per cent.
The increase has also seen a surge in ransomware-related attacks, with over a third of attacks being attributed to ransomware itself.
The researchers concluded that the increase in ransomware attacks had coincided with the rise in the number of ransomware samples on the open internet, which was now the primary target of ransomware.
This, the researchers say, could be because of the increased use of ransomware in ransomware cases, as well as a proliferation of new malware variants that have emerged in the years since the original ransomware infections were detected.
“These malware variants, which are not technically classified as ransomware, are capable of infecting machines and accessing their data and other files,” NIST researchers wrote in the report.
“They can also infect the computer systems of organizations, and have the capability to encrypt files on computers or servers.”
The study, which is still in early stages, pointed out that malware variants with the highest number of samples were the “CryptoWall” and the “WaltzWall” variants, as they were the first to be detected by the researchers.
The researchers also pointed to a proliferation in ransomware variants targeting US government and law enforcement personnel.
The number of attacks in this category is rising, and they have increased dramatically.
The ransomware attack wave that began in 2015 has since become a global phenomenon.
The US government has been targeted, and a number of states have experienced ransomware attacks.
The rise in ransomware incidents in the United States has led to the Federal Bureau of Investigation announcing a national “red alert” for all US citizens and business owners.
The alert, which affects all US federal government agencies and businesses, is meant to make it easier for customers to get their files back.
The FBI said that this is the second national alert to be issued since ransomware attacks began.
The first alert was issued in September, and it warned businesses that their IT systems were vulnerable to ransomware attacks due to the increased popularity of the ransomware variants.
The FBI also said that the ransomware infections have been increasing because of ransomware-style attacks on banking, financial institutions and other online services.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), cybercriminals are using malware that allows them to download files from the internet and then encrypt them.
In some cases, these attacks are also disguised as legitimate files or services.
“It is not only criminals who are using ransomware,” said Kevin Pate, an information security analyst at cybersecurity firm McAfee.
“It is also companies that are trying to protect themselves from being infected by ransomware.”
This is the first time ransomware has been detected in the Western Hemisphere, according to the DHS, with data from Mexico and Argentina showing that the infection rate of ransomware variants is higher in the Caribbean region than in the Pacific.
“The malware that is causing the ransomware to infect and encrypt its targets is also being used by cybercrimins and criminals to spread their malware to other countries,” Pate said.
“This malware is now being used to spread to more than 20 countries in the world, and the number that have been infected is increasing day by day.”
The ransomware attacks in the Americas have been spreading faster than in any other region in the global, according a report by security firm Kaspersky Lab.
The company’s research, published last month, found that the US is now experiencing more ransomware attacks than any other country.
A report from the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Centre found that ransomware attacks have been “increasing at a rate of more than 100 per cent a week” in the second half of this year.
The attacks have now become a “national epidemic”, the report said, and are increasingly being used as a tool to steal money, personal data and even the identities of those who are victims of ransomware ransomware.
The report also highlighted the importance of keeping up-to-date information on cyber attacks, saying that the most effective way to protect yourself against ransomware is to use a password manager that protects your account information.
“The biggest threat to your data is ransomware, but the most important threat to ransomware is cyberattacks, so you need to be aware of them,” the report says.
“If you are using a password management solution, you are also at greater risk of being hacked. R