‘Ransoms are being paid left, right, and center,’ one tech expert said.
Cyber attacks—usually involving ransomware—are making the news almost every day, and experts say artificial intelligence (AI) is being deployed to help the attackers find their targets more quickly.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software—or malware—that prevents a user from accessing their computer files, systems, or networks and demands they pay a ransom for their return, according to the FBI.
Among the dozens of ransomware attacks in the United States in July included incidents at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in Kansas, Ingram Micro, an IT company in California, and Cookeville Regional Medical Center in Tennessee.
The number of reported ransomware attacks worldwide in 2024 was 5,289, up 15 percent on the year before, according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
But those figures do not include the vast majority of attacks, which were not reported, according to Andy Jenkinson, a fellow of the Cyber Theory Institute and author of the book “Stuxnet to Sunburst: 20 Years of Digital Exploitation and Cyber Warfare.”
“Ransomware is huge. Ransoms are being paid left, right, and center. There are two types of ransomware attacks: one that becomes public and one that becomes covered up,” he told The Epoch Times.
PurpleSec, a U.S. cybersecurity company, estimates that the average cost of a ransomware attack has risen since 2019 from $761,106 to $5.14 million.
Ransoms Paid in Crypto
Jenkinson said ransoms are almost always paid in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are harder to trace than bank transfers.
Comparitech keeps a database of ransomware attacks around the world, and Jenkinson said cybercrime—including cyberscams that are carried out using stolen data—costs $32 billion a day globally.
A report last month by Sophos, based on a survey of cybersecurity leaders in 17 countries, found that nearly 50 percent of companies paid ransoms, and the median payment was $1 million.
Adnan Malik, a lawyer who is head of data protection at Barings Law in Manchester, England, told The Epoch Times that companies do not openly declare they have paid a ransom.
