According to a report released on Thursday, ransomware attacks increased by 64% between August 2020 and July 2021.
In its latest Threat Spotlight, Barracuda, a cloud-enabled security solutions company, analysed 121 ransomware incidents that occurred between August 2020 and July 2021.
The report revealed that several attacks are being led by a few high-profile ransomware groups.
Revil, a ransomware gang, was responsible for 19% of the attacks, while DarkSide, a new ransomware strain, was responsible for 8%.
Murali Urs, Country Manager, Barracuda Networks India, in a statement said “Ransomware criminals have refined their tactics to create a double extortion scheme. The initial steps towards safeguarding an organisation from any possible ransomware attack involve assuming vulnerability and setting a goal of not paying the ransom,”
Urs said it is also “necessary to implement anti-phishing capabilities in email and other collaboration tools, and consistently train your users for email security awareness,” and “crucial to stay put with a secure data protection solution that can identify your critical data assets and implement disaster and recovery capabilities”
Ransomware hackers are targeting the digital economy’s foundations all across the world, from trusted software vendors to IT service providers.
Between August 2020 and July 2021, attacks against corporations, such as infrastructure, travel, financial services, and other businesses, accounted for 57% of all ransomware attacks, up from 18% in Barracuda Network’s 2020 study.
Infrastructure-related businesses account for 10% of all attacks. In fact, ransomware attacks are rapidly evolving into software supply chain attacks, which target a larger number of companies in a single attempt.
Only 18% of the incidents had a ransom demand of less than $10 million, and 30% of the incidents had ransom demand of more than $30 million.
However, victims have been known to use bargaining strategies to reduce ransom payments in the past. According to the report, JBS negotiated a $22.5 million ransom payment down to $11 million, while Brenntag, a German chemical distributor, reduced a $7.5 million ransom demand down to $4.4 million.