Recent Trends in Cyber Security Attacks and How to be Prepared

A recent report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has revealed interesting findings related to cyber security. According to the FinCEN, ransomware attacks are becoming less of a high-volume factor and more so related to to targeting larger business to maximize the takeaway from an attack. While the large scale in lower volume, the ‘price’ of an attack is becoming more sever as hackers have begun threatening to publish private information in order to receive a higher ransom for seized information. While volume of attacks appears to be decreasing due to hackers seeking a higher payout from their tactics, ransomware attacks have seen an increase if 188% from 2020 to 2021, reaching a total $750 million dollars in claims. The majority of this money involved in claims, $488 million of the totl was accrued over the second half of 2021, showing that rates appear to be accelerating with time.

Another interesting finding reflected in the report refers to potentia involvement of Russian actors to be involved in scheming attacks to drive prevalence. Being estimated to have involvement with about 58% of the attacks administered throughout 2021, Russia may be a serious player in why ransomware attacks are reaching such high prevalence. In fact, the FinCEN believes that 4 of the 5 largest ransomware attacks occurring in 2021 have a connection to Russia. 

Despite the pessimistic nature in the content of the report, the FinCEN does offer solutions to become more prepared in preventing them. The first piece of advice pertains to investing in advanced detection systems that aim to block and report suspicious activity that may cause you to be at higher risk for a ransomware attack. While these systems typically come at a high cost, it is certainly better to be safe than sorry when preventing an attack. Also, if you suspect that an actor has attempted to contact to initiate an early stage attack, contact law enforecement immediately in order to put it on their radar. If you think that an actor may have gotten information they should not have access to, it is best to have early detection to minimize the damage done.

References:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/fincen-analysis-of-bsa-filings-in-2021-7091446