Security News > 2022 > June > Ransomware attacks need less than four days to encrypt systems
The duration of ransomware attacks in 2021 averaged 92.5 hours, measured from initial network access to payload deployment.
In 2020, ransomware actors spent an average of 230 hours to complete their attacks and 1637.6 hours in 2019.
Some ransomware gangs now have direct control over the initial infection vector, an example being Conti taking over the TrickBot malware operation.
In terms of the tools and methods that ransomware actors use, Cobalt Strike is common for interactive sessions, RDP for lateral movement, Mimikatz and LSASS dump for credentials, and SMB + WMIC and Psexec are typically usd for deploying payloads on the network hosts.
Ransomware actors used many of the same tools in 2019 but to various degrees.
Despite the defense improvements, ransomware continues to be a significant threat as actors adopted a highly targeted approach and turn to manual hacking to move inside the victim network and maintain a low profile until the final stage of the attack, system encryption.
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