Ransomware Attacks Jumped Almost 93% in 2021

Throughout 2021, attacks were most commonly targeted at the public (19.35%) and industrial sectors (19.35%), followed by consumer cyclicals (16.13%).

Pexels Stock Cybersecurity
Pexels

Ransomware attacks almost doubled in 2021, rising 92.7% year-on-year, according NCC Group.

“Many of the dangers which we first identified at the start of the pandemic have snowballed in 2021, revealing a developing threat landscape with ransomware attacks on the rise. However, despite many clear developing trends, the re-emergence of Lockbit as a prevalent actor highlights that the vulnerability landscape is still ever-changing,” says Matt Hull, global lead for strategic threat intelligence at NCC Group. “We need to remain vigilant for new and changing threats in 2022. It is now more important than ever for organizations to ensure that they are protected from the types of attack we have reported in 2021, especially in consistently targeted sectors such as industrials and consumer cyclicals.”

From NCC Group:

  • Throughout 2021, attacks were most commonly targeted at the public (19.35%) and industrial sectors (19.35%), followed by consumer cyclicals (16.13%).
  • Remaining consistent with NCC Group’s monthly threat pulses, the most targeted regions during 2021 were North America and Europe, accounting for 53% and 30% of all attacks respectively.
  • The most prevalent threat actor noted in the report was Conti, a Russia-based global threat actor that emerged in 2017. Conti represented 18% of all attacks across the past two years.
  • After a brief hiatus and metamorphosis into Lockbit 2.0 in June 2021, the group became one of the biggest contributors to double extortion ransomware in 2021, accounting for 16.4% of the entire year’s ransomware cases.  
Latest