Ransomware Payments are Down, But It Isn’t All Good News

Despite some of the headlines that we saw last year, it wasn’t all bad news regarding ransomware. Crucially, 2024 saw ransomware payments plummet by hundreds of millions of dollars… despite many large-scale attacks and one record-breaking whaling payment of $75 million by one victim.

This is undeniably great to hear… but with that in mind, you cannot let yourselves slip into complacency.

Ransomware Payments Fell, then Free-Fell, Throughout 2024

On the surface, it can be easy to assume that ransomware attacks were almost the worst they’ve ever been. After all, the headlines over the past year have been undeniably unsettling… we saw ransomware attacks impacting Change Healthcare (breaking the record for the largest reported attack in the US), AT&T, Starbucks, Deloitte UK, and CDK Global. Again, those were just some of the biggest attacks amongst a (as of yet reported) 389 total during 2024.

That being said, despite such large-scale attacks (like the $75 million payment) and ramped-up ransomware events in the latter part of the year, payments in response to these ransomware attacks decreased by 35 percent. In 2023, payments totaled another record-breaking $1.25 billion. In 2024, that figure was at $814 million.

This is still far too much money to be lost to scammers and thieves, but a 35% decrease is pretty promising.

What Led to this Decline?

Cybersecurity analysts point out a few factors directly related to the drop we see in retrospect.

For example, in February of 2024, international law enforcement agencies collaborated to conduct “Operation Chronos” and took the fight to the LockBit ransomware gang. After seizing the syndicate’s infrastructure and cryptocurrency access, the National Crime Agency (NCA) from the United Kingdom and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charted a 79 percent decrease in the second half of 2024. This effort ultimately led to the arrest of numerous people who allegedly held leadership roles in LockBit and caused the group to go underground.

It is also critical to point out that many potential victims are generally more resilient against ransomware attacks, refusing to pay and working with incident response firms.

This Has Led to Significant Challenges Against Ransomware

Remember that $814 million figure we mentioned earlier? Just over half of that was collected from January to June, $492 million to be precise, with the latter half of the year netting cybercriminals $321 million. So, ransomware saw a decline not only from year to year but within 2024 itself.

However, as we already hinted, the news isn’t necessarily all good.

Many cybersecurity experts caution that we should not celebrate too much, as past patterns indicate that ransomware will likely surge in popularity again. You and your team must still be prepared to resist ransomware attacks.

Macro Systems Can Assist You With These Preparations

From educating your team members to implementing preventative precautions, our team is here to help you with your business’ cybersecurity and general technology needs. Learn more about what we can do for you by reaching out at 703-359-9211.