More than half of all public and private organizations have fallen prey of ransomware attacks in 2019. Hackers have proceeded to implement more advanced techniques to infect computers and encrypt sensitive data.
<h2>Proofpoint Report On Ransomware And Phishing Attacks</h2>
A cybersecurity research company, Proofpoint, recently published their 2020<a href="https://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-reports/state-of-phish"> report</a> titled 'State of the Phish'. In the report, researchers concentrated on ransomware, phishing and cryptojacking attacks. Proofpoint's team analyzed the ways hackers applied social engineering to carry out cybercrime, the ways infosec teams are fighting back and how to boost employee awareness to avoid such attacks.

Proofpoint analyzed more than 9 million malicious emails, surveyed 3500 IT employees and 600 industry leaders. Also, to provide a complete summary of the state of cybercrime in 2019, the researchers launched about 50 million phishing attack simulation emails on their clients.

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/proofpoint">Proofpoint</a> found that last year, more than 55% of organizations were affected by the phishing attack, 90% of global organizations fell prey of malicious emails phishing attacks, while 50% of organizations were affected by ransomware attacks, spoofed credentials or compromised accounts.

Proofpoint surprisingly found that barely 69% of ransomware victims who paid attackers were provided keys to decrypt the restricted data. About 7% of victims faced more payment demands after paying to a ransomware attacker, and the rest of the victims still never got access to data even after the payment. Several organizations suffered financial and reputational damage or excessive downtime directly due to such attacks.
<h2>Nowadays, The Attackers Have Become More Sophisticated </h2>
The report even included the presence of a Ransomware-as-a-Service option, Gandcrab, which could be easily available on the Dark Web. Several participants in the Proofpoint survey stated the number of phishing attacks and ransomware had not increased noticeably since the previous year, although Malwarebytes reported a 500% growth in 2019. Many infections came from previously infected infrastructure, targeting databases and new networks.

This cybercrime explosion has caused the state of Maryland to introduce a bill to prevent ransomware possession. This bill appeared because last May, Robinhood ransomware attack completely paralyzed the city of Baltimore. This formed second such attack in a year. The city paid an amount of 13<a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/tag/bitcoin/"> Bitcoin</a> to the attackers to restore the systems. Bitcoin could be laundered and transferred more immediately than cash, which made it the most popular payment method demanded by cybercriminals.

Half Of The US Departments Fell Victim To Ransomware In 2019

This bill was introduced because last May, Robinhood ransomware attack completely paralyzed the city of Baltimore. This formed second such attack in a year.

Shailesh is an ardent follower of the crypto world and keenly watches every development taking place in the cryptocurrency space. He loves to voice his opinions through well-curated blogs and articles, which throw light on different facets of the crypto industry.

Half Of The US Departments Fell Victim To Ransomware In 2019

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