Today, May 12th, marks Anti-Ransomware Day and commemorates the 2017 global WannaCry attack which majorly disrupted the UK’s NHS. That was a huge event at the time. And sadly things have only gotten worse since then.
Rebecca Moody, Head of Data Research at Comparitech had this to say:
“In 2017, ransomware, to many people, was still a huge unknown. Fast-forward to today, and it’s a word within a lot of people’s vocabulary–even if they don’t understand the technical jargon surrounding it. This is because of large-scale attacks like WannaCry and the current attack on Marks and Spencer, bringing these types of attacks to the forefront. “
“Sadly, however, while awareness around these types of attacks has grown, so too has the number of attacks. Since 2018, we’ve seen yearly increases in the number of ransomware attacks (except for a dip in 2022), and the amount of data involved in these attacks has also risen exponentially. Hackers have become increasingly focused on double-extortion tactics whereby systems are encrypted (for one ransom payment) and data is also stolen (for another ransom payment).”
“Since 2018, we’ve tracked 281 confirmed ransomware attacks in the UK alone (confirmed attacks are those acknowledged by the entity involved). These attacks have led to the breach of over 3.3 million records and have seen average ransom demands of nearly USD $8.6 million (GBP £6.5 million).”
“40 of these attacks and nearly 1.2 million records are from 2024. And we’ve already seen 12 attacks this year so far. While no breaches have been reported for the attacks this year, we’ll likely see significant numbers involved in the attacks on M&S and Co-op.”
“While the threat landscape surrounding ransomware attacks has changed, the basics for thwarting these attacks remain the same. Make sure systems are up to date, patch vulnerabilities as soon as you become aware of them, carry out regular system back-ups, have detailed plans in place if the worst should happen, and, perhaps most crucially, carry out regular staff training. As we’ve seen with Harrods, Co-op, and M&S, social engineering tactics were used to carry out these attacks, whereby employees were tricked into changing their passwords.”
The world isn’t a safe place right now based on the fact that I started out occasionally reporting on ransomware attacks to reporting on them daily. Thus let’s use today as a catalyst to make whatever changes are required to make the world a whole lot safer when it comes to ransomware.
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This entry was posted on May 12, 2025 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Today Is Anti-Ransomware Day
Today, May 12th, marks Anti-Ransomware Day and commemorates the 2017 global WannaCry attack which majorly disrupted the UK’s NHS. That was a huge event at the time. And sadly things have only gotten worse since then.
Rebecca Moody, Head of Data Research at Comparitech had this to say:
“In 2017, ransomware, to many people, was still a huge unknown. Fast-forward to today, and it’s a word within a lot of people’s vocabulary–even if they don’t understand the technical jargon surrounding it. This is because of large-scale attacks like WannaCry and the current attack on Marks and Spencer, bringing these types of attacks to the forefront. “
“Sadly, however, while awareness around these types of attacks has grown, so too has the number of attacks. Since 2018, we’ve seen yearly increases in the number of ransomware attacks (except for a dip in 2022), and the amount of data involved in these attacks has also risen exponentially. Hackers have become increasingly focused on double-extortion tactics whereby systems are encrypted (for one ransom payment) and data is also stolen (for another ransom payment).”
“Since 2018, we’ve tracked 281 confirmed ransomware attacks in the UK alone (confirmed attacks are those acknowledged by the entity involved). These attacks have led to the breach of over 3.3 million records and have seen average ransom demands of nearly USD $8.6 million (GBP £6.5 million).”
“40 of these attacks and nearly 1.2 million records are from 2024. And we’ve already seen 12 attacks this year so far. While no breaches have been reported for the attacks this year, we’ll likely see significant numbers involved in the attacks on M&S and Co-op.”
“While the threat landscape surrounding ransomware attacks has changed, the basics for thwarting these attacks remain the same. Make sure systems are up to date, patch vulnerabilities as soon as you become aware of them, carry out regular system back-ups, have detailed plans in place if the worst should happen, and, perhaps most crucially, carry out regular staff training. As we’ve seen with Harrods, Co-op, and M&S, social engineering tactics were used to carry out these attacks, whereby employees were tricked into changing their passwords.”
The world isn’t a safe place right now based on the fact that I started out occasionally reporting on ransomware attacks to reporting on them daily. Thus let’s use today as a catalyst to make whatever changes are required to make the world a whole lot safer when it comes to ransomware.
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This entry was posted on May 12, 2025 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.