After identifying and analysing 106 highly publicised ransomware attacks over the past 12 months, Barracuda researchers have found that the education (15 per cent), municipality (12 per cent), healthcare (12 per cent), infrastructure (8 per cent), and financial (6 per cent) sectors are the five most targeted by adversaries. The analysis reveals that ransomware attacks on educational institutions more than doubled compared to the previous year, while attacks on the healthcare and financial verticals tripled, and infrastructure-related attacks quadrupled.
The researchers noted a rise in the number of service providers – companies that provide IT services or other business services – impacted by ransomware during the last year. However, the public data suggests that fewer victims paid the ransom, likely due to better defences, especially in critical infrastructure.
Barracuda’s own detections reveal that the volume of ransomware threats spiked at 1.2 million per month between January and June 2022.
The company points out that most ransomware attacks don’t make headlines as many victims choose not to disclose when they get hit and the attacks are often sophisticated and extremely hard to handle for small businesses.
“As ransomware and other cyberthreats continue to evolve, the need for adequate security solutions has never been greater,” said Fleming Shi, CTO at Barracuda. “Many cybercriminals target small businesses in an attempt to gain access to larger organisations. As a result, it is essential for security providers to create products that are easy to use and implement, regardless of a company's size. Additionally, sophisticated security technologies should be available as services, so that businesses of all sizes can protect themselves against these ever-changing threats. By making security solutions more accessible and user-friendly, the entire industry can help to better defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks.”
