Discover the most celebrated cyberattack in 2021 and how Isecurdata can help you reduce its risks to your business in the years ahead.
Organisations experienced various cyber attacks in 2021. Each quarter of the year came with its various cyberattack launched at businesses across the globe but a particular cyberattack excelled and gained more popularity than other variants of cyberattacks – Ransomware!
2021 sees major ransomware breakout as a cybersecurity attack vector that caused detrimental damage to individuals and organisations across the globe. Ransomware is acceptably not a new cyber threat; it is a cyber-attack that received great attention from governments and industry vendors in 2021.
From a holistic view of the year 2021, ransomware attacks affected healthcare services by denying people the ability to get healthcare, oil and gas services by denying people’s ability to put gas in their vehicles and trade by denying people the ability to buy groceries.
A report by FinCEN, the financial crimes investigation unit of the US Treasury Department revealed that the average amount of reported transactions per month in 2021 was $102.3 million. It was also reported that approximately $5.2 billion in ongoing Bitcoin transactions are potentially tied to ransomware payments.
The BI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 2,084 ransomware complaints from January to July 31, 2021, which represents a 62% year-over-year increase. Also, an IDC’s 2021 Ransomware Study revealed that approximately 37% of global organisations said they were the victim of some form of a ransomware attack in 2021.
Ransomware Trends in 2021
Attackers utilized dynamic techniques and approaches that yielded better results and over the year 2021, attackers focused on those approaches. Here are a few ransomware trends in 2021 according to TechTarget:
- Supply Chain Attack: In 2021,Attacks focused on supply chain attacks instead of attacking a single victim which extended the attack impact to affect associated entities. Kaseya attack is a good example, which affected at least 1,500 of her managed service provider customers.
- Ransomware as a Service (RaaS): The evolution of ransomware has given attackers the fortitude to use a platform that provides the necessary ransomware code and operational infrastructure to launch and sustain a ransomware attack. This is known as RaaS, a pay-for-use malware.
- Phishing: Phishing is a form of Social Engineering attack that was more prominent in the success of ransomware attacks in 2021.
- Attacking Unpatched Systems: This is a trend that has been for a while but continues to thrive year after year. Known vulnerabilities of unpatched systems are leveraged to successfully launch ransomware attacks in 2021.
Notable Ransomware Attacks in 2021
- Acer: The ransomware attack on Taiwan-based PC manufacturer Acer in March 2021 with the highest ransom demand of $50 million.
- CNA Financial: In late March 2021,one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S., CAN Financial was also a victim of a ransomware attack with a whooping ransom demand of $40 million.
- Colonial Pipeline: The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May 2021 affected the distribution of oil across the eastern coast of the United States.
- JBS USA: A meat processing vendor JBS USA suffered a ransomware attack in June 2021 that reduced the company’s productivity with a ransom demand of $11 million.
- Kaseya: A remote management software vendor suffered a ransomware attack that affected at least 1,500 of her managed service provider customers.
Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that ransomware will cost its victims around $256 billion annually by 2031 with a new attack every 2 seconds. It based the dollar figure on 30% year-over-year growth in damage costs over the next 10 years.
To avoid being a ransomware victim in the years ahead, you must be proactive, preventing and preparing to respond and recover from any form of cyber-attack including ransomware. Don’t make up the ransomware trends for the years ahead – take action now!
Isecurdata is specialised in IT managed services and optimal cybersecurity solutions. With over thirty years of IT Security experience, we can help you to reduce the risk of ransomware to your business with sustainable security resilience.
Secure your business – schedule a free consultation call with one of our specialists today.