Recorded Future: Tracking Ransomware Activity in January 2023

Category: Ransomware News | Industries: Education, Government, Healthcare | Level: Strategic | Source: The Record

In the January edition of Recorded Future's ransomware tracker, attacks against education, government, and healthcare organizations fell short of record-breaking numbers, offering some reprieve to those targeted sectors. With only three attacks reported in January 2023, attacks against state and local government entities experienced the lowest volume of attacks since January 2020. The volume of reported ransomware attacks was also low for healthcare organizations, with only seven reported attacks, one of the lowest volumes since June 2020. Allan Liska, a ransomware expert from Recorded Future attributes the decrease in reported ransomware attacks to better security controls and implementations, “I think part of it is better investment in security by the public sector worldwide." Liska also adds ransomware groups may lose interest in entities in the public sector due to a lack of financial gain "it is also just not profitable for the ransomware groups. Most people find the idea of using taxpayer money to pay off ransomware actors intolerable, so ransomware groups will waste a lot of time and money going after the public sector for very little payout."

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