{"id":20380,"date":"2023-01-21T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/cyber-crime-gangs-earnings-slide-as-victims-refuse-to-pay"},"modified":"2023-01-21T15:03:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T15:03:56","slug":"cyber-crime-gangs-earnings-slide-as-victims-refuse-to-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/cyber-crime-gangs-earnings-slide-as-victims-refuse-to-pay","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-crime gangs’ earnings slide as victims refuse to pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Cyber-crime gangs have had a 40% drop in earnings as victims are refusing to pay ransoms, researchers say.<\/b><\/p>\n

Cryptocurrency experts at Chainalysis say ransomware groups extorted at least $457m (\u00a3370m) from victims in 2022 – $311m less than the year before.<\/p>\n

The true figures are likely to be higher, but experts agree that fewer victims are paying.<\/p>\n

However, while there has been a drop in criminal revenue, the number of attacks is rising.<\/p>\n

Companies, governments, schools and even hospitals around the world are regularly falling victim to ransomware hackers, who lock staff out of their IT systems until a ransom is paid, usually in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

The hackers often threaten to publish or sell stolen data too.<\/p>\n

Recent high-profile victims include The Guardian newspaper, the Royal Mail delivery company and Sick Kids Canadian children’s hospital.<\/p>\n

Many ransomware crews are thought to be based in Russia, although Russian officials deny the country is a haven for the groups.<\/p>\n

Tracking Bitcoin wallets<\/b><\/p>\n

Analysts at Chainalysis track the money flowing in and out of Bitcoin wallets which are known to be owned by ransomware crews.<\/p>\n

Researchers say the criminal proceeds will be much higher than those they can see, because the hackers are likely to use other wallets too.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the company says, the trend is clear: ransomware payments are significantly down.<\/p>\n

Bill Siegel, of Coveware, which specialises in negotiating with hackers, agrees.<\/p>\n

His clients are becoming increasingly reluctant to give in to hackers, who can demand millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

In 2022, 41% of his clients paid ransoms compared with 70% in 2020, he says.<\/p>\n

No governments have made it illegal to pay hacker ransoms, but Mr Siegel and other cyber-experts think that US sanctions against hacker groups, or those with links to Russia’s Federal Security Service, have made paying some groups legally risky.<\/p>\n

“We refuse to pay ransoms if there’s even a hint of connection to a sanctioned entity,” Mr Seigel said.<\/p>\n

Other factors may also be at play, including an increase in ransomware awareness leading to improved cyber-security at organisations.<\/p>\n

“Hackers are definitely finding it harder to get paid for ransomware attacks,” said Brett Callow, threat researcher at cyber-security company Emsisoft.<\/p>\n

Companies have become better at protecting their back-ups, reducing their need to pay hackers for recovery, he added.<\/p>\n

“Additionally, as ransomware attacks have become so common, they are less of a PR disaster for companies, making them less likely to pay to keep incidents quiet and out of the news.”<\/p>\n

Attacks on the rise<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite the drop in revenue, the number of unique ransomware strains being used in attacks reportedly increased dramatically in 2022.<\/p>\n

Research from cyber-security firm Fortinet found that more than 10,000 unique types of the malicious software were active in the first half of 2022.<\/p>\n

The growth in the number of attacks last year could be connected with enforcement actions, mainly by the US authorities, which caused some of the largest ransomware groups to disband.<\/p>\n

In November 2021, alleged members of the REvil gang were arrested around the world in a global police operation, with more than $6m in cryptocurrency retrieved by US authorities in a so-called “claw back” hacking operation.<\/p>\n

It followed a similar operation by the US in June 2021 that took the Darkside gang offline and recovered $4.1m in stolen funds.<\/p>\n

It is thought that these actions may have forced criminals to work in smaller groups and also knocked the confidence of gangs.<\/p>\n

Criminals now seem to be carrying out a greater number of smaller attacks instead of going after large Western targets – so-called “big-game hunting” – where large payments are more likely.<\/p>\n

“While big-game hunting may have gotten more challenging, it is still rewarding,” said Jackie Burns Koven, head of cyber-threat intelligence at Chainalysis.<\/p>\n

She warns ransomware is still extremely profitable and smaller-sized organisations should be even more vigilant as hackers spread their net wider in an effort to be paid.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Cyber-crime gangs have had a 40% drop in earnings as victims are refusing to pay ransoms, researchers say. Cryptocurrency experts at Chainalysis say ransomware groups extorted at least $457m (\u00a3370m) from victims in 2022 – $311m less than the year before. The true figures are likely to be higher, but experts agree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-20380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nCyber-crime gangs' earnings slide as victims refuse to pay - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cyber-crime gangs have had a 40% drop in earnings as victims are refusing to pay ransoms, researchers say. 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