"Ransomware Breach Victim Numbers Fall by 25% in Q1 2022"

Security researchers at Digital Shadows have discovered that the number of ransomware leak victims dropped by over a quarter between the end of 2021 and the first three months of 2022.  The threat intelligence vendor observed 582 organizations listed on ransomware leak sites in Q1 2022, a decrease of 25.3% compared to Q4 2021.  The researchers claimed the drop was due to reduced activity from some of the more prolific groups.  These include Conti, which saw a 32% decrease in the number of victims, and Pysa, which did not name any victims during the quarter.  According to the researchers, Pysa appears to have disappeared, despite being the third most active ransomware group in Q4 2021.  In the first quarter of 2022, Digital Shadows observed the creation of many new ransomware groups and data leak sites.  These included Stormous, Night Sky, Zeon, Pandora, Sugar, and x001xs.  As in the previous two quarters,  LockBit 2.0 and Conti remained the most prolific of the 70 groups tracked by Digital Shadows, accounting for nearly 58% of incidents in Q1 2022.  LockBit had roughly twice as many victims as Conti and is reportedly the only group to have leaked data on more than 200 organizations in a quarter since Q3 2021.  The security researchers noted that while the first three months of the year were relatively quiet for ransomware groups, things are likely to pick up throughout 2022.

Infosecurity reports: "Ransomware Breach Victim Numbers Fall by 25% in Q1 2022"