Ransomware attacks up 84% YOY in 2023: report

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Ransomware attacks were at the forefront of the security conversation over the last year, and for good reason.

New research from IT security firm NCC Group shows that ransomware attacks increased 84% year over year in 2023, even accounting for a drop in December from November’s levels.

By the numbers. In a statement accompanying the report, the company’s Global Head of Threat Intelligence, Matt Hull, said that “closing 2023 with over 4,000 global ransomware attacks reflects the sharp rise of cybercriminal activity compared with 2022.”

The NCC Group report estimated that a similar rise in ransomware attacks in 2024 would result in a total of around 8,500 attacks by end of year. That’s a large increase, and NCC Group warned that “with the constant influx of new threat actors, the increase could even be exponential.”

“Although December saw a slight dip in ransomware levels down from the November statistics, the overall increase from December 2022 is a reminder of the growing cyber threat landscape and the importance of adopting the appropriate preventative measures to mitigate the risk of complex attacks,” Hull said.

Eye on the prize. The rise in attacks was accompanied by a rise in geographic diversification. While North America and Europe continued to be the most targeted regions, with 80% of attacks (51% in North America and 29% in Europe), cases in South America increased, and 12 of the 13 attacks against Russia in 2023 took place in November.

As IT Brew reported in December, ransomware gangs used a number of different software capabilities in 2023, including APTs and commodity loaders. And they’ve been using those varied technologies to engage in tactics like double extortion or bringing in finance and legal pros to “tighten the screws,” as Chester Wisniewski, director and global field CTO at Sophos, told IT Brew in January.