Ransomware attacks across several key sectors rose in November, rebounding from a rare dip that researchers noted in October.
Ransomware gangs posted 369 victims to their extortion sites in November - a sharp increase from the 243 victims in October, but still below the totals seen in many months in 2023.
Attacks on healthcare providers, state and local governments, and schools also increased, though they did not set records, according to data collected by Recorded Future from extortion sites, government agencies, news reports, hacking forums, and other sources.
Allan Liska, a Recorded Future ransomware expert who is involved with collecting and analyzing the attack data, said the decline in ransomware attacks in October could have been due to takedown efforts by law enforcement.
In late August, the FBI dismantled the Qakbot ransomware gang's infrastructure and removed ransomware from infected devices.
The Ragnar Locker ransomware site was taken down by law enforcement last month in an international action.
Around the same time, Ukrainian hackers said they wiped the servers of the Trigona ransomware gang, which allegedly was tied to Russia.
With many takedowns the targeted groups only experience minor setbacks - overtime, they regroup and rebrand themselves, and continute to launch attacks.
Graphs from this ongoing project can be shared and reproduced with proper attribution.
Adam Janofsky is the founding editor-in-chief of The Record by Recorded Future.
He previously was the cybersecurity and privacy reporter for Protocol, and prior to that covered cybersecurity, AI, and other emerging technology for The Wall Street Journal.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Mon, 11 Dec 2023 03:55:23 +0000