Locky, a new family of ransomware that emerged in the last few weeks, has quickly made a mark for itself.

Computer security companies say it has become a commonly seen type of ransomware, which is used to hold a computer’s files hostage pending a ransom payment.

Trustwave’s SpiderLabs said on Wednesday that 18 percent of the 4 million spam messages it collected in the last week were ransomware-related, including many linked to Locky.

“We are currently seeing extraordinary huge volumes of JavaScript attachments being spammed out, which, if clicked on by users, lead to the download of a ransomware,” wrote Rodel Mendrez, a Trustwave security researcher.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here