Ride the Lightning

Ransomware Coming on Strong in 2023!

June 22, 2023

Just when you think ransomware is slowing, it gathers speed again.

Bleeping Computer reported that March 2023 broke ransomware attack records with 459 incidents.

March 2023 was the most prolific month recorded by cybersecurity analysts in recent years, measuring 459 attacks, an increase of 91% from the previous month and 62% compared to March 2022.

So, what happened?

According to NCC Group, the culprit was CVE-2023-0669, a vulnerability in Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT secure file transfer tool that the Clop ransomware gang exploited as a zero-day to steal data from 130 companies within ten days.

NCC Group also saw an upward trend since the start of the year (January and February), with the highest number of hack and data leak incidents recorded in the past three years.

Clop performed 129 recorded attacks in February, topping the most active ransomware gangs for the first time in its history.

Clop’s CVE-2023-0669 exploitation spree bested LockBit 3.0, which had 97 recorded attacks, to second place for the second time since September 2021.

Who else was active in March 2023? Royal ransomware, BlackCat (ALPHV), Bianlian, Play, Blackbasta, Stormous, Medusa, and Ransomhouse.

 Regarding the location of March’s victims, almost half of all attacks (221) breached entities in North America, Europe followed with 126 episodes, and Asia was third with 59 ransomware attacks.

Note well: The March 2023 spike underscores the importance of applying security updates as soon as possible, mitigating potentially unknown security gaps like zero days by implementing additional measures and monitoring network traffic and logs for suspicious activity. \

All well-known measures to protect your data – step up to the plate and make sure it is done!

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22030
Email:  Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
https://senseient.com
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