Last Updated on 06/02/2022 by Nidhi Khandelwal
Threat actors have been driven to reduce their targeting scope and maximize the effectiveness of their operations as a result of multiple law enforcement operations resulting in the arrests and takedown of ransomware activities in 2021.
Even after major members of the infamous Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gangs have been imprisoned, most of the notorious RaaS gangs continue to operate, refining their strategies for maximum impact.
According to a Coveware examination of ransomware negotiation data from Q4 2021, ransomware organizations are now requesting bigger ransom payments rather than increasing the volume of their operations.
In terms of dollars, the average ransom payment in Q4 2021 was $322,168, up 130 percent from the previous quarter. The typical ransom payment was $117,116, up 63 percent from the previous quarter.
Because disturbing the operations of huge corporations leads to investigations and worldwide political problems, criminals are now attempting to strike a fine balance.
They target companies that are large enough to receive significant ransom demands, but not so large or important that they will generate more geopolitical problems than gains.
When looking at firm size in terms of employee count, companies with more than 50,000 employees had fewer incidences, as threat actors preferred to target mid-sized businesses.
