The year 2023 posed significant financial challenges for many organizations and startups. It witnessed companies struggling to raise funds and making sacrifices to stay afloat. On the contrary, ransomware and extortion gangs observed a record-breaking year in terms of earnings, as indicated by recent reports.
The ransomware landscape saw an escalation in tactics, with hackers becoming more aggressive and extreme in pressuring victims to meet their exorbitant ransom demands. This, coupled with the lack of government bans on ransom payments, resulted in 2023 becoming the most lucrative year for ransomware gangs.
The billion-dollar cybercrime business
According to new data from crypto forensics startup Chainalysis, ransomware payments nearly doubled in 2023, crossing the $1 billion mark and marking a major comeback for ransomware.
While the reported figure is the highest ever observed, it likely underestimates the actual amount of ransom payments made in 2023, indicating even higher earnings for ransomware gangs.
However, amidst the overall success of ransomware gangs in 2023, some observers noted a decline in payments toward the end of the year due to enhanced cyber defenses and a growing distrust among victim organizations towards hackers’ promises to delete stolen data.
Record-breaking ransoms
While more ransomware victims are refusing to pay, ransomware gangs are compensating by targeting a larger number of victims, exemplified by the MOVEit campaign. This campaign, involving the Russia-linked Clop ransomware gang, exploited a vulnerability in MOVEit Transfer software to steal data from over 2,700 organizations.
Another notable incident was the multimillion-dollar payment made by casino giant Caesars to hackers to prevent the disclosure of customer data stolen during a cyberattack in August.
Escalating threats
The diminishing ransom money has led ransomware and extortion gangs to resort to escalating tactics and extreme threats, such as the reported attempt to pressure a cancer hospital into paying a ransom demand by threatening to “swat” its patients.
No ban on ransom payments
Despite the increasing challenges posed by ransomware attacks, organizations still have the option to pay ransom demands, as there is no ban in place unless hackers have been sanctioned. The debate over whether to ban ransom payments continues, with some experts advocating for a ban to prevent cybercriminals from profiting, while others fear it might lead to adverse consequences.
As the debate continues, ransomware attacks remain a lucrative venture for hackers, prompting various opinions on the most effective approach to curbing their impact in the long term.
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