Enterprises faced 4x more ransomware threats in first half of 2022 than last year

Ransomware attacks against firms worldwide grew to 1.2 million per month in the first six months of 2022, said a report published last week by security firm Barracuda Networks. The company said that the number grew from 300,000 per month in the January-June period of 2021 to 900,000 per month in the second half of last year, and the first six months of 2022 saw further proliferation of such attacks.

Further, the report said that the education sector, municipalities, healthcare, infrastructure and financial sectors were the dominant targets for some of the most publicized attacks, accounting for 15%, 12%, 12%, 8% and 6% of all attacks, respectively. The company’s researchers analyzed 106 “highly publicized attacks” between August 2021 and June 2021, the report said.

The analysis said that while municipalities saw a only a slight spike in ransomware activity in the past 12 months, attacks on educational institutions “more than doubled” in that time. Healthcare and financial verticals, on the other hand, saw a tripling of such attacks in the past 12 months.

“Many cybercriminals target small businesses to gain access to larger organisations,” said Parag Khurana, Country Manager, Barracuda Networks India. “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 businesses of all sizes can protect themselves against these ever-changing threats,” he added.