DailyPost 2587
BLACK SEPTEMBER
If the pace of ransomware attacks grow further and starts impacting daily life as floods, hurricanes and like, it would a disaster difficult to handle. A disaster man-made by the ones who launch and by the governments, enterprises and research institutions who had onerous responsibility of not allowing it happen. While Europol has made a commendable success out of its Ragnar Locker investigation, yet the other stark reality cannot be overshadowed. The fact is that September was a record month for ransomware attacks in 2023. This would quality the month to be called as Black September, as Cyber Security happens to be the biggest security challenge since 2014.
Not that it saw prolific attacks, the analysis of the attacks shows a dangerous and potent trend. The new kids on the block are gaining international prominence and notoriety in no time, given the skills they have and damage they can unleash. For the record, one out of every five attacks came from a new ransomware operation, highlighting both their aggressiveness and the capability to scale. September saw ransomware activity reaching unprecedented levels following a relative lull in August. Suffice to say, even that was still way above regular standards for the summer months.
As per the data collated by the NCC Group data, ransomware groups launched 514 attacks in September. This number was enough to surpass March 2023 activity, which 459 attacks. This figure was heavily skewed by Clop’s Fortra GoAnywhere data theft attacks. There not activity on the Clop’s side in September, which may mean that the sophisticated ransomware gang is preparing for its next mega attack. The landmark number was achieved even without Clop. The record was achieved by other threat groups, led by LockBit 3.0 (79), LostTrust (53) and BlackCat (47). Reiterating the same point, LostTrust is a new threat actor, making directly to the second place.
A newcomer in extortion attacks, Ransomed VC, employing GDPR reporting threats, is ranked fourth with 44 attacks. It would be interesting to note that some of the attacks claimed by Ransomed were found to exaggerated. Overall, in terms of targeted regions North America bore the brunt with 50% share and the most targeted sector has been the ‘industrials’ with 169 attacks. From January to September 2023, the total number of recorded attacks have been to the tune 3500, and is likely to cross the 4000 mark, by the end of the year. A report from Chainalysis published earlier this year had predicted 2023 as a record year for ransomware payments based on projected data.
RANSOMWARE; THE BIGGEST AND THE MOST COMPLEX CRIME HAS STILL TO CATCH GOVERNMENTS IMAGINATION.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.