A report by the US Treasury has found US financial institutions experienced nearly $1.2bn in costs associated with ransomware attacks in 2021.
According to Cyberscoop, these costs represent a nearly 200% increase over the previous year.
The publication noted that the report underscores that curbing ransomware represents a key challenge in the US’ relationship with Moscow.
Of the top five variants that were reporting during the second half of last year, four are connected to Russia, according to FinCEN. However, it cannot definitively attribute the variants to Moscow.
Cyberscoop said that the data released on Tuesday represents suspicious transactions that American banks have flagged to US regulators as potentially connected to ransomware, and, for that reason, experts caution that the data from the Treasury Department offers only a partial picture of the broader ransomware industry.
Wally Adeyemo – Deputy Secretary of the Treasury – remarked, “We may approach the challenge of ransomware with a different lens — and in some cases, an entirely different set of tools — but we are all here because we know that ransomware remains a critical threat to victims across the globe and continues to be profitable for bad actors.
“In fact, we know that hackers around the world consider conducting ransomware attacks the most profitable scheme on the internet. More profitable even than selling illegal drugs via dark net markets and stealing and selling stolen credit cards.”
The White House recently brought together over 30 countries and private sector firms for a two-day summit focused on combating such attacks.
According to Security Week, the second International Counter Ransomware Summit will focus on priorities such as ensuring systems are more resilient to better withstand attacks and disrupt bad actors planning such assaults.
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