The pandemic brought with it many problems worldwide, massive job losses, and a host of other problems, one of them, cybercriminal attacks, which increased considerably, far exceeding previous years, now with an increase of 148% in global attacks, which translates to more than 495 million attacks, making 2021 the year of ramsomware, the most dangerous and costly in history.
SonicWall, one of the main sources of information on ramsomware threats, managed to register the increase in the rate of breaches, and according to the United States administration, who organized a world summit on ramsomware with the aim of compromising “all tools nationals ”to stop all attacks on critical sectors.
“As we see it, ransoware is on an almost unimaginable upward trend, posing a significant risk to businesses, service providers, governments and ordinary citizens,” said Bill Conner, President and CEO of SonicWall.
The unstoppable ransomware
Without a doubt, this year has been the most active for registered ransomware, in addition to showing no sign of slowing down, after registering a record last June, with 78.4 million attacks, criminals continue to experience exponential and aggressive growth for the third quarter of 2021.
With about 1,090.4 million attempted breaches, within the third quarter alone, it makes it the highest ever recorded, almost reaching the sum of the first three quarters recorded in 2020.
“The damage in the real world caused by these attacks is more than an anecdote at this time, it is a serious global problem, which has already affected companies and governments around the world, I am hopeful that the recent world summit , be the next step toward a greater response globally ”adds Bill Conner, president and CEO of SonicWall
Despite the great efforts of the companies with cyber infrastructures of each national government, the United Kingdom managed to experience a 233% increase in attacks, followed by the United States, with a 127% increase, so far this year.
According to data from SonicWall, there were nearly 1,748 ransomware attempts per customer through Q3, which equates to 9.7 attack attempts per business day, the analytics company estimates, near the end of 2021. They will come close to 714 million, which would be a significant increase of 134%.
“As long as organizations continue to ignore or fail to implement cybersecurity best practices to reduce their attack surface, ransomware groups will only increase investments in time, resources and money to launch campaigns that result in mass payments,” says Dmitriy Ayrapetov, SonicWall Vice President of Architecture.
These attacks not only affect companies, but also people of any kind who have contact with the Internet, so it is advisable to always choose strong passwords, not download information from dubious sites, install programs without knowing what they really are, among others. things, criminals never rest and will continue to carry out attacks in order to achieve their goal.