Ransomware attacks have increased by 80% year-over-year

In 2022, the most prevalent ransomware trends include double-extortion, supply chain attacks, ransomware-as-a-service, ransomware rebranding, and geo-political incited ransomware attacks.

“Modern ransomware attacks require a single successful asset compromise to gain initial entry, move laterally, and breach the entire environment, making legacy VPN and flat networks extremely vulnerable,” said Deepen Desai, CISO of Zscaler.

“Attackers are finding success exploiting weaknesses across businesses’ supply chains as well as critical vulnerabilities like Log4Shell, PrintNightmare, and others. And with ransomware-as-a-service available on the darkweb, more and more criminals are turning to ransomware, realizing that the odds of receiving a big payday are high.”

The tactics and scope of ransomware attacks have been steadily evolving, but the end goal continues to be a disruption of the target organization and theft of sensitive information for the purposes of ransom.

The size of the ransom often depends on the number of systems infected and the value of the data stolen: the higher the stakes, the higher the payment. In 2019, many ransomware groups updated their tactics to include data exfiltration, commonly referred to as a ‘double extortion’ ransomware.