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Blackfog Ransomware Report - LockBit dominates, Play makes moves, Healthcare sector highest risk of attack
July 2024 by Dr Darren Williams, CEO and Founder at Blackfog
Blackfog’s State of Ransomware Report for June has just been released, revealing the second highest June on record in terms of overall threat numbers for the year with 45 total attacks.
In terms of ransomware gangs, LockBit continues to dominate, but the Play ransomware group was the ‘biggest mover’, according to Darren Williams, CEO, presenting a 33% increase in attacks across the month.
Moreover, Healthcare dominates attack numbers by sector, increasing 25% from May, whilst the ratio of unreported attacks generally remains at 774%.
“In June we saw an easing of the overall threat numbers for the year with 45 total attacks. Historically still very high, it represents the second highest June on record. It demonstrates just how normalised these attacks have become. Despite the lower number of attacks for the month, the ratio of unreported attacks remains high at 774%, reflecting the sheer volume of attacks that still go unreported.
Healthcare takes centre stage this month with an increase of 25% from May, followed by government and technology with increases of 23% and 21% respectively. Unlike most months the education sector took a well-earned break from the record books with only an 8% increase.
In terms of variants, Play was the biggest mover this month with a 33% increase in attacks followed by Black Basta and Medusa with 14% and 13% respectively. This follows the large increase in unreported attacks from Medusa last month, typically a leading indicator of disclosed attacks in subsequent months. While Lockbit is still the leading variant by a significant margin, we only saw a modest gain of 3% this month.
Finally, data exfiltration is now involved in 93% of all attacks with PowerShell the leading vector at 62%, an 11% gain from the previous month. China and Russia also continue to dominate as the leading destinations for exfiltrated data with 15% and 6% respectively.”
