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Ransom demands are getting larger and larger

Demands have tripled in the last year alone.

ransomware

(Image credit: Image Credit: WK1003Mike / Shutterstock )

In the past twelve months, ransom demands made by cybercriminal groups have tripled, according to a new report from ransomware protection firm ProLion.

The company recently analyzed data from 50,000 of its policyholders in North America and found the average ransom demand today sits at $1.2 million, compared to roughly $450,000 a year ago.

Commenting on the findings, Steve Arlin, VP Sales at ProLion, said that the average funds stolen leaped “a staggering 179 percent”, from $116,842 in H1 2021, to $326,264 in H1 2021. The significant increase, Arlin concluded, “only serves to encourage bad faith actors”.

The number of successful breaches resulting in the loss of files also spiked, the report states.

ProLion partly attributes the spike in ransomware volumes to the ever-lowering barrier to entry. The introduction of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) has made it a lot easier to execute a ransomware attack, which means groups no longer target large organizations exclusively, but also SMEs, local government organizations and even sports teams.

To make matters even more difficult, businesses that fall victim also need to deal with regulators, possible GDPR fines and serious reputational damage.

“The call to action is simple – be proactive,” Arlin concluded. “Cybercrime is ballooning and as we are seeing time and again, ransomware is fast becoming a serious threat to us all.  This is no longer an issue of a database being held to ransom, entire supply chains are now threatened as the bad actors are targeting mission-critical infrastructure.”

Resource: itproportal.com