That old adage about crime never pays could not be more false, at least when it comes to modern-day cybercriminals. For those bad actors using ransomware as their weapon, crime is paying more than ever.
Cybersecurity company Emisoft estimates that the true global cost of ransomware, including business interruption and ransom payments in 2020, was a minimum of US$42 billion and a maximum of nearly $170 billion.
A survey by Veritas Technologies found that 66 percent of victims admitted to paying part or all of the ransom, according to a report released Wednesday by managed detection and response firm eSentire.
The report, authored by eSentire's security research team it calls the Threat Response Unit (TRU), found that six ransomware gangs claimed at least 290 new victims fo far this year. The combined spoils tallied potentially $45 million for the hackers.
Company researchers from eSentire teamed up with dark web researcher Mike Mayes to track the Ryuk/Conti, Sodin/REvil, CLOP, and DoppelPaymer ransomware groups. They also tracked two emerging cybergangs known as DarkSide and Avaddon.
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Esentire's TRU and Hayes found that specific groups racked up hundreds of victims in 2020 and collectively compromised 292 new victim organizations between January 1 and April 30 of this year. Researchers estimated the average ransom organizations paid increased from $115,123 in 2019 to $312,493 in 2020, a 171 percent year-over-year increase.
Esentire's TRU and Hayes found that specific groups racked up hundreds of victims in 2020 and collectively compromised 292 new victim organizations between January 1 and April 30 of this year. Researchers estimated the average ransom organizations paid increased from $115,123 in 2019 to $312,493 in 2020, a 171 percent year-over-year increase.
How to Avoid Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware groups are wreaking havoc against many more entities than the public realizes, according to eSentire. No single industry is immune from this ransomware scourge which is happening across all regions and sectors.
Entire recommends these tips to defend against ransomware attacks:
- Backup all critical files and store them offline
- Require multifactor authentication to access your organization's virtual private network (VPN) or remote desktop protocol (RDP) services
- Only allow only administrators to access network appliances using a VPN service
- Domain controllers are a key target for ransomware actors. Ensure your security team has visibility into your IT networks using endpoint detection and response (EDR) agents and centralized logging on domain controllers (DCs) and other servers
- Employ the principle of least privilege with staff members
- Disable RDP if not being used
- Regularly patch systems, prioritizing your key IT systems
- Implement network segmentation
"From a cybersecurity industry perspective, there are some very effective security services, tools, and policies available to companies to greatly help them protect their valuable data and applications from cyber threats such as ransomware, business email compromise, cyber espionage, and data destruction," Sangster advised.
Booming Business for Hackers
Ransomware attacks are frequent. Their payouts are often not disclosed by the victims due to embarrassment or loss of public trust. The hacker groups are not shy, however, about self-reporting of their successful exploits on their personal blog/leak sites.
As more daily business and activities become digitized, there is more opportunity for dark web actors to consume and exploit sensitive data posted to underground platforms, he added. The cybercrime underground is only continuing to grow, and pandemic and economic crisis may lead more threat actors to seek illicit financial activity and lately, radical political discourse.
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