How much do you think ransomware was up this past year?

We may have published a similar article by Malwarebytes, but this one from Cybernews caught my attention.

If its a duplicate, sorry! Here are the first two paragraphs.

With the rise of ransomware-as-a-service gangs like LockBit and ALPHV, known ransomware attacks surged by 68% in 2023 and reached a record level, according to the latest State of Malware report by Malwarebytes.

The total number of known cyberattacks stood at 4475 in 2023. The US accounted for almost half ­– 45% – of ransomware attacks. The UK comes second with 7% of costly incidents, followed by Canada, Italy, and Germany, with 4% each.

This is very interesting but not surprising that the U.S. lead, and will probably continue to lead with 45 percent of attacks out of the entire bunch. But the problem is, the rest of the numbers are so low, between 4-7 percent, it seems way off to me.

Statistics reveal that May 2023 was the most intense month, with 560 ransomware attacks.
ransomware attacks

There are always going to be spikes, I wonder why it was May this past year?

A multi-billion-dollar ransomware industry feeds off the legitimate economy and now supports entire supply chains, specialized organizations like access brokers, and malicious software vendors. It has brand names, PR stunts, HR departments, incentive schemes, and “employees of the month.”

Employees of the month? You have to be fucking kidding me. You have to be joking when you say that you reward an employee for fucking up some business somewhere and doing a good job at it.

“RaaS vendors sell everything you need to carry out a ransomware attack: The encrypting ransomware itself, access to a dark web leak site to hold and leak stolen data, and a means to negotiate with

This is expected, just like a normal business giving you a desk, telephone, computer, access to the network, the tools to do your job including paper, pens, notepads and the like.

Do you want to guess which was the biggest criminal gang?

LockBit was the biggest criminal name in 2023, with more than 1000 ransomware attacks attributed to the gang. However, other competitors are actively closing the gap.
New techniques emerge

I wonder what others might end up catching up with lockbit with. We’ll have to see.

he article also talks about living off the land, a new technique that we must be aware about.

The article is titled Known ransomware attacks increased 68% last year and should be read entirely. I only highlighted what caught my attention. What caught yours?