Security News > 2023 > August > The ransomware rollercoaster continues as criminals advance their business models

Ransomware shows no signs of slowing, with ransomware activity ending 13 times higher than at the start of 2023 as a proportion of all malware detections, according to Fortinet.

FortiGuard Labs has documented substantial spikes in ransomware variant growth in recent years, largely fueled by the adoption of Ransomware-as-a-Service.

FortiGuard Labs found that fewer organizations detected ransomware in the first half of 2023 compared to this time five years ago.

This supports the trend that FortiGuard Labs has seen over the last couple of years, that ransomware and other attacks are becoming increasingly more targeted thanks to the growing sophistication of attackers and the desire to increase the return on investment per attack.

FortiGuard Labs continues to observe wipers being used by nation-state actors, although the adoption of this type of malware by cybercriminals continues to grow as they target organizations in technology, manufacturing, government, telecommunications, and healthcare sectors.

While the report finds more active botnets and a higher incidence rate among organizations over the last half-decade, one of the more shocking findings is the exponential increase in the total number of "Active days", which FortiGuard Labs defines as the amount of time that transpires between the first hit of a given botnet attempt on a sensor and the last.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/08/09/ransomware-detections-1h-2023/