The second quarter of this year has become the focus of some new firsts in ransomware attacks, according to new data from cybersecurity vendor Reliaquest.
None of us want to see ransomware continue “up and to the right” on a chart. But it appears that this is the case, according to Reliaquest’s Ransomware Report: Q2 2023. In the report, we find that the number of ransomware victim organizations named on the dark web jumped from 838 in Q1 of 2023 to 1,378 in Q2 – a 64.4% increase. There were some other ransomware “firsts” noted in the report:
- Q2 of 2023 had the highest number of reported victim orgs
- May of 2023 had the highest number of reported victim orgs, at 600
- The number of reported victim orgs in June of 2023 (462) was 244% higher than June of 2022
In total, 43 ransomware groups have posted named victim organizations on their data-leak sites, demonstrating the massive appeal of this “market” to cybercriminals (who simply see this as a business).
Ransomware appears to be a threat that’s going to be here for a while, making it necessary for organizations to look at the ways these attacks gain their initial access (with phishing continually sitting at the top of the list) and finding corresponding ways (security awareness training, in the case of phishing attacks) to minimize the risk of a successful attack.