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2023 was a lucrative year for ransomware gangs, fueled by an escalation in threats and tactics
For many organizations and startups , 2023 was a rough twelvemonth financially , with caller struggling to raise money and others making cuts to survive . Ransomware and extortion gang , on the other handwriting , had a record - infract year in salary , if late theme are anything to go by .
It ’s scarcely surprising when you look at the United States Department of State of the ransomware landscape . Last year realise hacker continue to evolve their tactics to become scrappy and more extreme in elbow grease to blackjack dupe into paying their progressively unconscionable ransom demands . This escalation in tactics , along with the fact that governments have stopped short of banning ransom payments , pass to 2023 becoming the most moneymaking class yet for ransomware bunch .
The billion-dollar cybercrime business
concord tonew data from crypto forensics startup Chainalysis , fuck ransomware payments almost doubled in 2023 to surpass the $ 1 billion bull’s eye , call the year a “ major comeback for ransomware . ”
That ’s the highest figure ever observed , and almost double the amount of known ransom payment dog in 2022 . But Chainalysis said the actual design is likely far gamy than the $ 1.1 billion in ransom money payments it has witnessed so far .
There ’s a glimmering of good intelligence , though . While 2023 was overall a bumper year for ransomware pack , otherhacker - watchers watch a bead in paymentstoward the end of the year .
This drop is a result of improved cyber defenses and resilience , along with the growing sentiment that most victim organizations do n’t trust drudge to keep their promises or delete any steal data as they claim . “ This has led to honest guidance to victims and fewer payments for impalpable self-confidence , ” according toransomware remedy party Coveware .
Record-breaking ransoms
While more ransomware victims are defy to line the sac of hacker , ransomware gangs are compensating for this drop in pay by increasing the telephone number of victims they target .
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Take theMOVEit hunting expedition . This immense hack saw the prolific Russia - linked Clop ransomware gang mass - exploit a never - before - interpret exposure in the widely used MOVEit Transfer software to steal data from the systems of more than 2,700 dupe organizations . Many of the victims are get it on to have paid the hack group in drive to prevent the publication of sensitive data point .
While it ’s inconceivable to live exactly how much money the mass - hack made for the ransomware group , Chainalysis said in its report that Clop ’s MOVEit campaign amassed over $ 100 million in ransom money payments , and accounted for almost half of all ransomware economic value received in June and July 2023 during the height of this multitude - hack .
MOVEit was by no way the only money - make water campaign of 2023 .
In September , casino and entertainment giantCaesars paid roughly $ 15 millionto hackers to prevent the disclosure of customer information stolen during an August cyberattack .
This multimillion - dollar defrayal perhaps illustrate why ransomware actor continue to make so much money : the Caesars attack barely made it into the news , while a subsequentattack on hotel behemoth MGM Resorts — which has so far cost the society $ 100 million to recover from — dominated headlines for weeks . MGM ’s refusal to make up the ransom money lead to thehackers ’ discharge of sore MGM customer data , include names , Social Security numeral and passport details . Caesar — outwardly at least — appear largely unscathed , even if by its own admissioncould not guarantee that the ransomware gang would deletethe company ’s steal data .
Escalating threats
For many organizations , like Caesars , pay the ransom money demand seems like the easy option to avoid a public relations nightmare . But as the ransom money money dry up , ransomware and extortion gangs are upping the ante and resorting toescalating tactics and extreme threats .
In December , for illustration , hacker reportedly tried to pressure a cancer infirmary into pay a ransom demandby jeopardize to “ swat ” its patients . swat incident rely on malicious callers falsely claiming a bastard material - humans threat to life , incite the response of armed police officeholder .
We also saw the notorious Alphv ( be intimate as BlackCat ) ransomware gangweaponize the U.S. government ’s raw data point breach disclosure rulesagainst MeridianLink , one of the gang ’s many victims . Alphv accused MeridianLink of allegedly failing to publicly disclose what the gang called “ a pregnant breach compromising client datum and operational entropy , ” for which the gang take up course credit .
No ban on ransom payments
Another reason ransomware continues to be moneymaking for hackers is that while not advised , there ’s nothing kibosh organisation give up — unless , of course , the hackershave been sanctioned .
To pay or not to pay off the ransomis a controversial subject . Ransomware remediator Coveware suggest that if a ransom payment forbiddance was imposed in the U.S. or any other highly rook country , companies would likely stop report these incident to the authorities , reversing past cooperation between victims and jurisprudence enforcement agencies . The company also predicts that a ransom payments forbidding would lead to the all-night creation of a large illegal market for help ransomware defrayal .
Others , however , trust a blanket proscription is the only elbow room to ensure ransomware hackers ca n’t keep to line their pockets — at least in the short term .
Allan Liska , a threat word psychoanalyst at Recorded Future , has long controvert banning ransom payment — but now believes that for as long as ransom money payments remain lawful , cybercriminals will do whatever it takes to amass them .
“ I ’ve resisted the approximation of cover bans on ransom defrayal for years , but I think that has to change , ” Liska tell apart TechCrunch . “ Ransomware is getting spoiled , not just in the number of onset but in the aggressive nature of the attacks and the chemical group behind them . ”
“ A forbidding on ransom money payments will be painful and , if chronicle is any guidebook , will in all probability lead to a short - condition increase in ransomware attacks , but it seems like this is the only solution that has a prospect of long - term succeeder at this point , ” said Liska .
While more victim are recognise that pay off the hackers can not guarantee the safety of their data , it ’s clean that these financially motivated cybercriminalsaren’t giving up their lavish lifestyle anytime soon . Until then , ransomware attack will persist a major money - making example for the hackers behind them .
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