Security News > 2021 > August > Ransomware Payments Explode Amid ‘Quadruple Extortion’

Two reports slap hard figures on what's already crystal clear: Ransomware attacks have skyrocketed, and ransomware payments are the comet trails that have followed them skyward.

As far as the sheer multitude of attacks goes, Barracuda researchers on Thursday reported that they've identified and analyzed 121 ransomware incidents so far in 2021, a 64 percent increase in attacks, year-over-year.

Double extortion has been around for more than a year: That's when threat actors not only paralyze a victim's systems and/or data but also threaten to leak compromised data or use it in future spam attacks if victims balk at paying extortion demands.

"Attacks on corporations, such as infrastructure, travel, financial services, and other businesses, made up 57 percent of all ransomware attacks between August 2020 and July 2021, up from just 18 percent in our 2020 study. Infrastructure-related businesses account for 10 percent of all the attacks we studied."

After analyzing more than 120 incidents from August 2020 until July 2021, Barracuda's research team found that ransomware attacks increased 64 percent year over year, and that REvil and DarkSide were responsible for 27 percent of those attacks.

A multiplier effect is brought into play, given that ransomware attacks are "Quickly evolving to software supply-chain attacks, which reach more businesses in a single attempt," Shi explained, with Kaseya being just one case in point.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/ransomware-payments-quadruple-extortion/168622/