🍎Ransomware trends: a bit less WalMart.. a bit more Apple📱

Ever hear those business models compared?

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Both can work well:

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Either selling a lot of product, to a lot of the market, with slimmer margins (WalMart, Amazon) … 

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or targeting a higher-end part of the market, and demand a much higher, premium fee (the way Tesla and Apple launched their products).

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So what's the similar trend when it comes to ransomware?

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Research shows the maximum and median amounts of ransom payments are sharply increasing, with median payments now averaging $1.5 million.

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That’s almost eight times what they were just 18 months ago.

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On record for the largest payment so far this year is Dark Angels ransomware gang getting a $75 million ransom payment.

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So instead of going the WalMart route—of targeting many demanding smaller amounts,

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the malware-baddies seem to have leaned more into a Tesla or Apple model: fewer attacks, while demanding bigger ransoms!

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The good news?

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Although there’s a 10% increase in attacks posted on data leak sites, where those who refuse to pay a ransom have their stolen data leaked, ransom payments are down more than 27%.

Behind these numbers, is a disturbing new attack trend called “big game hunting.”

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These are high-profile attacks on big business and critical infrastructure that bring big bucks ransom demands and payments.

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So, while the number of actual ransomware attacks get smaller, the big game hunting payoff is much, much larger.

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It’s an alarming problem for big game targets when their operations are disrupted, and their highly sensitive data is at risk of public exposure.

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Although authorities have broken up some of ransomware’s biggest operators like LockBit and ALPHV/BlackCat, these groups splinter into new operations.

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Some rebrand themselves, but they also bring new methods and techniques to their attacks.

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One suggestion is for law enforcement to better follow the money leading directly to these groups.

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In the meantime, organizations both big and small need to protect themselves from ransomware, including what’s trending now and those trends to come.

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Stay safe,​
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​Your Dicar Networks Team