The number of ransomware attacks in the first 6 months of 2021 exceeded the total number for all of the previous year and it shows no sign of slowing down.
According to a new report from SonicWall – the number of Ransomware attacks in the second quarter of 2021 is up 150% compared to 2020.
Using telemetry from over a million of their firewalls and security devices installed in organisations around the world, the report reveals the current attack trends and tactics being used by today’s cyber-criminals.
Interesting data points from the report include:
- Ransomware attacks in Europe have risen 234% and the UK is the most targeted country in Europe, and the second most targeted in the world, behind the USA.
- Extortion is increasingly used to ensure victims pay to prevent copies of stolen data from being published – even where backups could otherwise be used to recover encrypted files.
- Paying the ransom appears to attract subsequent attacks, even from the same criminal gangs.
- The sector most targeted by ransomware is Government, followed by Education, Healthcare and then Retail.
- The three dominant ransomware strains popular with criminals are Ryuk, Cerber and Samsam.
- Attacks targeting or leveraging IoT devices grew 59% compared to the previous year
- The rise in cryptocurrency prices has resulted in an increase in cryptojacking attacks, which rose 248% in Europe.
“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”
Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)