Ransomware has been a frightening menace to organizations worldwide for many years. Current traits present that ransomware assaults proceed to develop extra superior and protracted. It’s turn into more and more clear that nobody is spared as cybercriminals perform assaults that even goal the youngsters of company executives to pressure ransom funds. Regardless of the high-profile takedowns of legal ransomware networks in “Operation Endgame” and “Operation Duck Hunt,” essentially the most infamous ransomware teams stay tenacious, shortly regrouping after disruptions and aggressively launching new assaults.
The Zscaler ThreatLabz workforce has simply launched its newest analysis on this vital ransomware menace panorama within the ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report, shedding mild on new knowledge and traits. ThreatLabz analyzed 4.4 million ransomware assaults blocked by the Zscaler cloud, amounting to a 17.8% year-over-year enhance, and performed intensive evaluation of ransomware samples and assault knowledge. The report gives beneficial insights into main assault targets, essentially the most harmful ransomware households, and the evolving ways and calls for of ransomware menace actors. Most shockingly, it reveals that ThreatLabz uncovered a record-breaking USD$75 million ransom fee.
For a complete understanding of the ransomware panorama and how one can strengthen your group’s defenses in opposition to this pervasive menace, obtain the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report.
5 key ransomware findings
The ThreatLabz workforce tracks ransomware exercise extensively to determine and perceive how these threats are evolving. The next subset of findings spotlight a few of the most outstanding traits and targets.
Prime ransomware traits
1. The variety of extorted firms based mostly on evaluation of malicious knowledge leak websites grew by 57.8% year-over-year, regardless of legislation enforcement actions that embody legal arrests, indictments, and seized infrastructure. The report breaks down essentially the most important legislation enforcement operations in opposition to ransomware teams and preliminary entry brokers over the previous yr.
2. The usage of voice-based social engineering to achieve entry into networks is on the rise—a method made widespread by Scattered Spider and the Qakbot menace group.
3. The exploitation of vulnerabilities continues to be a prevalent assault vector for ransomware, emphasizing the vital want for measures like immediate patching and unified vulnerability administration, strengthened by a zero belief structure.
Prime ransomware targets
4. The manufacturing, healthcare, and expertise sectors have been the highest targets of ransomware assaults between April 2023 and April 2024, whereas the vitality sector skilled a 527.27% year-over-year spike.
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5. The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and France have been the highest 5 nations focused by ransomware in the identical time interval.
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Delve into these findings and extra knowledge within the full report.
$75M ransom fee uncovered
ThreatLabz recognized 19 new ransomware households this yr, rising the full quantity tracked to 391 over the previous decade, as cataloged within the ThreatLabz GitHub repository.
With new and rising ransomware teams come new and ever-evolving strategies to maximise their operational influence and monetary beneficial properties. This was evidenced by the record-breaking $75 million ransom fee uncovered by ThreatLabz. The report discloses the menace group behind this unprecedented fee—additionally named by ThreatLabz as one of many high 5 ransomware households that can be a giant menace to companies within the yr forward. Find out about their strategic strategy and why ThreatLabz predicts related methods will acquire traction amongst different menace actors.
The report additionally shares complete insights into the ways, potential impacts, and up to date actions of different ransomware households that ThreatLabz has recognized as high-risk and noteworthy for 2024-2025.
Stopping ransomware begins with zero belief
The rising quantity and value of ransomware assaults discovered on this yr’s report is a stark reminder that organizations should prioritize sturdy ransomware defenses. The https://www.zscaler.com/platform/zero-trust-exchange platform addresses this problem by providing a holistic strategy to stopping ransomware.
The Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report supplies important steerage to this finish, together with:
The rising quantity and value of ransomware assaults discovered on this yr’s report is a stark reminder that organizations should prioritize sturdy ransomware defenses. The Zscaler Zero Belief Alternate™ platform addresses this problem by providing a holistic strategy to stopping ransomware.
The Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report supplies important steerage to this finish, together with:
- Combating AI with AI: Find out about Zscaler’s AI-powered cyberthreat safety capabilities wanted to fight AI-driven threats.
- Zero belief structure benefits: Find out how the Zero Belief Alternate stops ransomware at each stage of the assault cycle:
- Reduce the assault floor: By changing exploitable VPN and firewall architectures with a zero belief structure, it hides customers, purposes, and units behind a cloud proxy, making them invisible and undiscoverable from the web.
- Stop compromise: The platform makes use of TLS/SSL inspection, browser isolation, superior sandboxing, and policy-driven entry controls to forestall entry to malicious web sites and detect unknown threats earlier than they attain the community, decreasing the chance of preliminary compromise.
- Eradicate lateral motion: Leveraging user-to-app (and app-to-app) segmentation, customers join on to purposes, not the community, eliminating lateral motion danger. It might probably additionally assist discover and cease potential attackers from shifting round by way of id menace detection and response (ITDR) and deception capabilities.
- Cease knowledge loss: Inline knowledge loss prevention measures, mixed with full inspection, successfully thwart knowledge theft makes an attempt.
- Ransomware prevention guidelines: Entry the newest finest practices to mitigate ransomware danger and defend your group from current and rising threats.
Get your copy of the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Ransomware Report right this moment. As ransomware threats persist, understanding the newest traits and potential implications of those assaults and assessing your danger will assist your group defend itself in opposition to ransomware in 2024 and past.