Despite global law enforcement efforts and heightened attention from the White House, ransomware incidents continue to rise unabated, according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant. Researchers at the Google-owned company identified 50 new ransomware variants in 2023, with about a third branching off existing malware. This underscores the pervasive nature of the problem and the challenges in curbing cyber extortion.
In 2023 alone, cybercriminals amassed over $1 billion from victim ransom payments, highlighting the lucrative nature of these attacks.
The healthcare sector has been particularly hard-hit, with hospitals experiencing significant disruptions. The report noted that Ascension, one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems with 140 hospitals across 19 states, was recently impacted by the Black Basta ransomware variant. The ongoing outage is raising concerns about patient safety and the potential risk to lives.
Mandiant’s findings align with a recent White House report on national cybersecurity, which also noted an increase in ransomware attacks.
However, one significant issue is that reporting ransomware incidents is largely voluntary. This means assessments of ransomware prevalence often rely on data from cybersecurity companies, whose understanding is based on their customer base and the cybercriminal communities they monitor.
To address this, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
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