Ransomware Revenue Drops As Victims Pay Less Often, Chainalysis Reports

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While the number of ransomware hits may not have dropped significantly, revenue from these attacks fell sharply last year, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain forensics firm believes that, to a large extent, the trend can be attributed to more targeted organizations refusing to pay perpetrators.

Chainalysis sees significant drop in revenue from ransomware attacks

In the year 2022, ransomware actors managed to extort at least $456.8 million from victims, Chainalysis revealed in a report released Thursday. The estimated amount is down from $765.6 million the previous year, the analytics firm pointed out, noting that the true total is likely much higher, as many crypto addresses controlled by attackers are not have not yet been identified.

The trend is clear: ransomware payments are down significantly, the study authors said while stressing that this finding does not mean fewer attacks have been carried out. Rather, they believe that much of the decline is due to the growing number of affected organizations actually refusing to pay the demanded ransoms.

Source: Chain Analysis

Chainalysis also highlights a huge increase in unique ransomware strains in 2022, continuing the growth of active strains in recent years. At the same time, the majority of ransomware revenue still goes to a limited group of strains, according to the researchers, meaning the actual number of individuals who make up the ransomware ecosystem is likely quite small.

Victims pay less often, report claims

Onchain data compiled by Chainalysis shows a huge drop in ransomware revenue, exceeding 40.3%. Evidence available to the company suggests that the decline stems from a growing reluctance on the part of victims to pay a ransom rather than a decrease in the number of extortion attempts.

According to Michael Phillips, director of claims at cyberinsurance firm Resilience, claims filed with the industry show that ransomware remains a growing threat, but some factors are disrupting extortion attempts, such as the war in Ukraine and increased pressure. Western law enforcement on groups committing such crimes, including arrests and fund recovery.

Allan Liska, a Recorded Future intelligence analyst and ransomware expert, cited information collected from data leak sites that indicated that ransomware attacks decreased by more than 10% between 2021 and 2022, from 2,865 to 2 566. The expert also pointed to another reason why the revenue drop paying ransoms has become legally more risky and elaborate:

With the threat of penalties looming, there is the additional threat of legal consequences for payment [ransomware attackers].

Cyberinsurers, who reimburse victims of ransomware, have also played a role. Cyber ​​insurance has really taken the lead in tightening not just who it will insure, but also what insurance payments can be used for, so it’s much less likely to allow its customers to use an insurance payment. insurance to pay a ransom, commented Liska.

Cyber ​​insurers’ demand for enhanced cybersecurity measures is a key driver of the trend towards less frequent ransom payments, explained Bill Siegel, co-founder and CEO of ransomware incident response firm Coveware. Statistics from his company show that between 2019 and 2022, victim payment rates fell from 76% to 41%.

Tags in this story attackers, Blockchain Analysis, Blockchain Forensics, Chainalysis, cyber insurance, cybersecurity, data, decline, Information, ransomware, Ransomware attacks, ransomware payments, ransomware revenue, report, Research, Sanctions, study, trends, Victims, War

What do you think of the findings of the Chainalysis report on ransomware trends? Share them in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a tech-savvy Eastern European journalist who loves Hitchens’ quote: Being a writer is who I am, rather than what I do. Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

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