In the first half of 2024, victims of ransomware have paid $459,800,000 to attackers; if ransom payments continue at this pace, this year might establish a new record. Ransomware payments hit a historic high of $1.1 billion last year, as Chainalysis had previously estimated based on data from the first half of the year, when ransomware activity raked in $449,100,000.
Despite massive law enforcement operations that halted large ransomware-as-a-service operations, like LockBit, we are currently about 2% higher than the record-breaking trend from the same period in 2023.
The recent Chainalysis study claims that this growth is the result of ransomware gangs concentrating on collecting large payments by stealing customers’ private data and inflicting costly disruptions to major organisations.
“2024 is set to be the highest-grossing year yet for ransomware payments, due in no small part to strains carrying out fewer high-profile attacks, but collecting large payments,” reads the Chainalysis report. “2024 has seen the largest ransomware payment ever recorded at approximately $75 million to the Dark Angels ransomware group.”
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