Ransomware attacks are down in the third quarter
The period from July to September this year has seen 27 ransomware variants used to conduct 455 attacks according to cybercrime intelligence company Intel 471's Spot Reports and Breach Alerts.
This represents a decrease of 38 attacks from the second quarter of 2022 and 134 from the first quarter of 2022.
The most prevalent ransomware strain this quarter was LockBit 3.0, which was responsible for 42.2 percent of all reported incidents. This was followed by Black Basta at 11 percent, Hive at 9.23 percent and ALPHV at 6.6 percent. Other reported variants each accounted for 4.62 percent or less of the total number of observed ransomware attacks. The daily average of reported LockBit breaches was two -- the same trend Intel 471 observed from the ransomware group in the third and fourth quarters of 2021 and the first and second quarters of 2022.
In June Intel 471 observed the Conti ransomware group's payment site and victim name-and-shame blog went down. The group has allegedly terminated its operation due to mounting law enforcement pressure and public scrutiny. This likely had an impact on the overall quantity of breaches for the third quarter of 2022 compared to the previous two quarters by decreasing the total number of breaches and allowing other variants to appear in the top four or move up the rankings.
Looking at the victims, attacks impacting the consumer and industrial products sector in the third quarter of 2022 decreased by 14 percent from the second quarter of 2022. Though this continued to be the most impacted sector this quarter, as it was in both the second and first quarters of 2022. The second most-impacted sector is professional services and consulting, followed by manufacturing.
A geographical breakdown shows the most-impacted region in the third quarter of 2022 to be North America, amounting to 43.07 percent of all reported attacks. This is followed by Europe at 33.19 percent, Asia at 10.9 percent and South America at 4.18 percent.
The full report is available from the Intel 471 site.
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