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Called XGen endpoint security and available immediately, the new architecture reflects a security landscape in which increasingly sophisticated exploits arrive far too fast and often for any one form of protection to handle, according to Kevin Simzer (pictured), Trend Micro’s executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Ransomware often distributed via spam emails, especially now that the notorious Angler Exploit Kit (EK) is gone, and Locky appears responsible for a surge of certain delivery methods, researchers say. According to Trend Micro, 71% of known ransomware families arrive via email.

If an individual jumps through the various hoops necessary to access this part of the Internet, they can buy anything from weaponry to counterfeit documents and data dumps -- and stealing a person's identity is cheap, with Trend Micro estimating that each data record is worth less than a dollar in underground marketplaces.

The cloud is rapidly opening new IT delivery options for a wide range of organizations. “It’s an amplifier,” says Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research for security solutions provider Trend Micro. “This is really exciting, as it lets organizations focus on their core business.”

Analyses, by both Morphus Labs and Trend Micro, show that the ransomware arrives at its destination either as an executable, downloaded from malicious sites, or as a file, dropped by another malware.