Dramatic increase by some cybercriminal groups and new entrants driving rise in attacks
Cyber security remains a top priority for government and businesses as shown in the NCC Group’s Annual Threat Report which indicates global ransomware attack cases rose to 4,667 cases, an 84% increase from 2022. The dramatic rise was primarily driven by new players entering the ransomware threat landscape.
North America remains the primary target with 50% of all attacks, followed by Europe at 28% and Asia at 10%. Industrials experienced 1,484 attacks, representing 32% of all attacks, followed by Consumer Cyclicals at 15%, and Technology at 11%. Total Industrial attacks rose a dramatic 85% year-on-year, primarily due to the sector’s lucrative sensitive information and data stored by professional and commercial services and consultancies.
“The last year saw the highest volume of ransomware victims we have recorded at NCC Group…which has also increased due to new and innovative techniques used by ransomware operators, that shows that no organization in any sector or region is safe,” said Matt Hull, global head of Threat Intelligence at NCC Group.
The Report identifies the cybercriminal group LockBit as the most prominent ransomware attacker of 2023, jumping over 20% to 1,039 attacks. Cl0p was third with a staggering 609% increase from 2022, as attacks rose from 57 to 404—despite being inactive for one-third of the year. It exploited the infamous GoAnywhere and MOVEit vulnerabilities to reach such high numbers.
Progress is being seen in the greater levels of law enforcement and government intervention which took down Qakbot. But strong threat actors remain, including DarkGate and Pikabot. The continual entry of new players into the ransomware arena highlights the need for more tools and instruments to keep pace.
While the significant increase in attacks presents greater challenges, they are also attracting cybersecurity entrepreneurs such as serial entrepreneur Steve Visconti who is co-founder of Xiid. His cyber security startup provides a proprietary architecture to protect enterprise networks and assets which he discussed on the podcast Experienced Voices™.
Internationally the rising response of law enforcement and particularly governments via the 50 member countries in The International Counter Ransomware Initiative offers encouragement for the fight against threat actors in 2024, according to Hull. Added to this are the innovation solutions being introduced by new startup entrants to cybersecurity.
