New data presented by Atlas VPN team has revealed that all over the world, the government and the banking sector received 50 percent of ransomware attacks in 2020 among the top 10 most-targeted sectors.
The data disclosed that while the government sector faced 31,906 ransomware attacks, the banking sector suffered 22,082 attacks. Other industries in the top five include manufacturing (17,071), healthcare (15,701), and finance (4,917).
Also, WannaCry was responsible for 220,166 or nearly 87% of all last year’s top ransomware families’ attacks. Locky, ransomware came in second, with 15,816 attacks in 2020. Other ransomware families in the top five include Cerber (5,448), Ryuk (3,376), andGandCrab (2,326).
Sharing her thoughts on ransomware attack trends in 2020, Ruth Cizynski, the cybersecurity researcher and writer at Atlas VPN said: “Financial organizations have always been popular targets among cybercriminals due to their wealth. In the meantime, the government and healthcare sectors are known to be especially vulnerable to cyberattacks. As the latter industries also played a critical role in dealing with the global pandemic last year, they became an easy prey to hackers.”
Ransomware is malicious software that restricts access to a victim’s files or devices until the ransom is paid. Last year, this type of attack was one of the cybercriminals’ favorite methods for targeting organizations.