Ransomware attacks top 1.2 million per month

A new report from Barracuda finds the volume of ransomware threats detected spiked between January and June of this year to more than 1.2 million per month.

Researchers have also seen a spike in the number of service providers that have been hit with a ransomware attack. The main targets, however, are still five key industries: education, municipalities, healthcare, infrastructure, and financial.

Analyzing 106 highly-publicized attacks, the researchers found that education accounted for 15 percent, municipalities (12 percent), healthcare (12 percent), infrastructure (eight percent), and financial (six percent). Over the past year ransomware attacks on educational institutions more than doubled, and attacks on the healthcare and financial sectors tripled.

Infrastructure-related attacks have quadrupled too, signaling cybercriminals' intent to inflict greater damage beyond the impact on the immediate victim. Automobile, hospitality, media, retail, software, and technology organizations all saw increased levels of attacks as well.

"As ransomware and other cyberthreats continue to evolve, the need for adequate security solutions has never been greater," says Fleming Shi, CTO at Barracuda. "Many cybercriminals target small businesses in an attempt to gain access to larger organizations. As a result, it is essential for security providers to create products that are easy to use and implement, regardless of a company's size. Additionally, sophisticated security technologies should be available as services, so that businesses of all sizes can protect themselves against these ever-changing threats. By making security solutions more accessible and user-friendly, the entire industry can help to better defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks."

On a positive note the past year has seen more ransomware payments being recovered by law enforcement agencies, as well as new levels of cooperation between the United States and the European Union to fight ransomware.

You can read more on the Barracuda blog.

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