We have seen a rise in Ransomware attacks before this summer holidays. Notorious cases such as Colonial Pipe Line, creating a national-level emergency, put the issue on the agenda of our political leaders. I was asking myself many questions about this explosion of Ransomware and where it would take us. 🤔
Now SonicWall has released their 2021 Mid-Year Update CyberThreat Report, 2021 Mid-Year Update CyberThreat Report, with many interesting insights and answers to my questions. Ransomware has manifested as the top-raising threat by the increase in the number of attacks. 📈
They have grown by 151% in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. And the top three are Ryuk, which tripled the number of attempts; Cerber grew in May up to 5 times the levels in January; and SamSam, which had more than double the volume in the first half of 2021 compared to all the year 2020. 🧨
They have also added extortion to the encryption of the victim's files to make sure they pay despite the existence of backups. 💰
"The more organizations there are that are forced to payout, the more incentive Ransomware groups have to launch the attacks." 💵
Considering that most companies are going for cyber insurance that covers the payment of ransoms, that will make the incentive for cybercriminals bigger and may lead to an unsustainable situation. 🤷♀️
Victims that have paid are more prone than others to repeated attacks. 💣
You can also look at the report to check the percentage of customers targetted per vertical industry or the level of incidence for geographical region. 🔎
I share in the comments below the link to download the whole report. 👇
Is your organization considering cyber insurance to cover the risks of ransomware? 🤔
Are your backups off-line and out of the reach of cybercriminals? 🤔