Initial discovered in Nov 2016, but now starting to be seen in the wild:
Malicious SVG Files in the Wild
Not a rampant issue, but will be an issue if they include a ransomware 
payload. Just had to do a system rebuild for a client because they opened an email attachment that claimed it was from USPS and they had just used USPS Priority mail to send medical documentation to a testing lab.
Can’t trick me into clicking that. “If you want your files back, send a GF to this P.O. address…”)
People who do this should face life in prison.
I agree. Don’t see what they get out of doing it.
I think I’ll be getting a separate backup soon. Just in case I run into this.
well if your data is encrypted and you NEED that data. they expect you to pay them to unlock YOUR data.
Yep, this.
Plus some do it just for kicks, some b/c they are evil, some to steal your info for financial gain, some to make your computer & IP be their slave and do evil things for them while hiding them, etc.
Should be at least life in prison, at a minimum.
That would be a real bummer. 
Does having an external backup protect you from ransomeware?
I have Time Machine on my Mac and it has saved me more times than i can remember.
As long as you have a backup pre-infection. Finding that point maybe tricky as there’s probably timers keeping it hidden for a bit. It needs time to do said encrypting.
Yep, make a bootable full backup of your system about once a month to an external hard drive. Once complete disconnect this dive and put it in a safe place. For even more safety use two external drives and rotate them every other month, just in case you’re newest backup happens to contain the ransomeware. Even from a full backup that’s a couple months old you should then be able to pull needed files back from your Time Machine backup.
So far, I’ve not needed my backup for this reason, normally needed due to a hardware failure, but it’s comforting to know it’s there if needed.
One other helpful tip: put a reminder on your schedule to perform this backup as it will require manual steps (connecting the external drive, running the backup, disconnecting the drive and storing it away) and you don’t want to forget to keep these backup fairly current.