Ransomware Profits Decline as More Victims Refuse to Pay
upstart writes:
In another sign that the tide may be finally turning against ransomware actors, ransom payments declined substantially in 2022 as more victims refused to pay their attackers - for a variety of reasons.
If the trend continues, analysts expect ransomware actors will start demanding bigger ransoms from larger victims to try and compensate for falling revenues, while also increasingly going after smaller targets that are more likely to pay (but which represent potentially smaller payoffs).
"Our findings suggest that a combination of factors and best practices - such as security preparedness, sanctions, more stringent insurance policies, and the continued work of researchers - are effective in curbing payments," says Jackie Koven, head of cyber-threat intelligence at Chainanalysis.
[...] "Enterprise organizations investing in cybersecurity defenses and ransomware preparedness are making a difference in the ransomware landscape," Koven says. "As more organizations are prepared, fewer need to pay ransoms, ultimately disincentivizing ransomware cybercriminals."
[...] Bill Siegel, CEO and co-founder of Coveware, says that insurance companies have influenced proactive enterprise security and incident response preparedness in a positive manner in recent years. After cyber-insurance firms sustained substantial losses in 2019 and 2020, many have tightened their underwriting and renewal terms and now require insured entities to have minimum standards like MFA, backups, and incident response training.
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