Security News > 2022 > March > Pay to play: Ransom demands averaged $2.2m last year

The average ransom demand hit $2.2 million in 2021, a 144 percent rise from the year prior, according to Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 consultants, while the average ransom payment grew 78 percent to $541,010.

The security research and consulting team's latest ransomware report pulls data from cases handled by Unit 42 along with analysis of ransomware gangs' leak sites.

"As these ransomware gangs and RaaS operators find new ways to remove technical barriers and up the ante, ransomware will continue to challenge organizations of all sizes in 2022," warned Ryan Olson, VP of threat intelligence for Unit 42, in a forward to his organization's report.

A new ransomware-as-a-service operations BlackCat, which other threat hunting teams have linked to the BlackMatter/DarkSide ransomware ring, began using "Triple extortion attacks," according to the report, first stealing an organization's data, then deploying ransomware and threatening to leak the information, and then launching a DDoS attack if the ransom isn't paid.

Russia-based Conti displaced REvil as the most active gang in 2021, based on security incidents that Unit 42 responded to last year.

The second company, a manufacturing firm the report calls Entity B, also did not pay the ransom and says it took about a month to assess the full scope of the breach and how much data REvil had stolen.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/03/25/ransomware_unit_42/