Average ransomware attack duration shrunk from 2 months to just 3 days

Organised crime continues to be a prevalent force in the world of cybersecurity. A study by IBM X-Force reveals that there has been a reduction in the average duration of ransomware attack from over two months to just a little more than three days between 2019 and 2021.

According to the report, there was a 94.34% decrease in the average duration of ransomware attack during the period mentioned above.

One of the major reasons for the spike in attack speed was the initial access broker economy and ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) industry. These give cybercriminals a window for repeatable ransomware attack lifecycle, along with low-risk, high reward threats like ZeroLogon vulnerability and CobaltStrike.

The cybercriminals network dealing in ransomware is continuously increasing with several players possessing expert skillsets.

Another report by Verizon shows that ransomware breaches in 2021 increased by 13% — representing a jump greater than the past five years combined.

Verizon found that as criminals look to leverage increasingly sophisticated forms of malware, it is ransomware that continues to prove particularly successful in exploiting and monetising illegal access to private information.

Organised crime also continues to be a pervasive force in the world of cybersecurity. Roughly 4 in 5 breaches can be attributed to organised crime — with external actors approximately four times more likely to cause breaches in an organisation than internal actors, reveals the study.

Again, another report by cybersecurity firm Ivanti last month revealed that ransomware operators continue to weaponise vulnerabilities extremely fast, with ransom threats becoming more and more ‘lethal’ in nature.  

The report uncovered 22 new vulnerabilities tied to ransomware (bringing the total to 310), with 19 being connected to Conti, one of the most prolific ransomware groups of 2022. Conti has promised support for the Russian government following the invasion of Ukraine.

Globally, ransomware vulnerabilities have shot up in two years from 57 to 310, it said.  

To make matters worse, some of the most popular scanners are not detecting several key ransomware vulnerabilities. The research also revealed that over 3.5% of ransomware vulnerabilities are being missed, exposing organisations to grave risks, said Ivanti