New Research Shows Despite Increase in Ransomware Attacks in 2024, There Was a Decline in Its Payments

According to Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence firm, there was a decline seen in ransomware payments in 2024, with a 35% YoY drop. The ransomware price in 2023 was $1.25 billion average while it decreased to $813.55 million in 2024. It was also found that only 30% of the victims who negotiated with the ransomware actors paid the ransom payment. In 2024, it was found that a Fortune 50 company paid $75 million to Dark Angels ransomware group and NCC group saw the most ransomware breaches with 5263 attacks in 2024. Chinalysis also found that the increase in data leak site disclosures mean that attackers are facing challenges while extorting payments which is leading to an increase in their activities to make up for it. Even though there was an increase in ransomware attacks in 2024 with decreased payments, it is all because of victim resistance as industries are getting more aware of ransomware risks so they keep on investing in cyber security to protect their systems.

Organizations are also getting less trusting of threat actors’ promises of deleting data so they prefer to absorb reputational damage and recover data from backups instead. Law enforcement actions, like 'Operation Cronos,' which targeted the LockBit group, also helped a lot with the decline. In the past few years, cybercriminals have gotten different laundering options. Law enforcements are cracking down on cryptocurrency mixers and exchangers which don't follow KYC laws so cybercriminals are good for other ways to launder money like cross-chain bridges which hides transactions and isn't trackable. 39% of ransomware attacks got payment through centralized exchanges in 2024.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World