Continued analysis of ransomware attacks shows an upward trend in the number of attacks, with September resulting in the highest number of assaults so far this year.
IT security vendor NCC Group’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Report for September 2023 shows some startling revelations about why ransomware attacks are spiking. According to the report:
- The lion’s share of attacks were focused on the Industrial sector, who took the brunt of one-third of the ransomware attacks in September
- Half of all attacks targeted the United States, with another 30% focused on Europe
- Lockbit 3.0 was the dominant player, being responsible for 32% of all attacks last month
What’s also disturbing is the presence of a newcomer ransomware threat group, RansomedVC, who are claiming responsibility for an attack on Sony at the end of September. This group first showed up on NCC Group’s radar in August and jumped to the fourth-most active group in September, giving credence to the need to keep our eyes on their future activities.
Most of these ransomware groups still rely on phishing as their initial attack vector, making it imperative that security awareness training be a critical part of your organization’s cyber defense strategy to fend off social engineering attacks via email used to trick users into kicking off the attack.
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