As every year, the Chainalysis company publishes its annual reports concerning the state of cryptocrime over the past year. Thus, despite an lull in 2024, Chainalysis estimated at the beginning of January that it could only be a facade. Despite a potential increase in crypto flights, it would however seem that ransomware attack has no rating as much as in the years.
The key points of this article:
Chainalysis reported a 35 % drop in ransom payments in 2024, suggesting an evolution in victims' behavior to ransomware. Companies have resisted ransomware better thanks to better information and increased international cooperation, often favoring deciphering tools or recent backups.
Ransomware in 2024: the victims no longer yield to blackmail
On February 5, the Chainalysis teams shared a detailed report on The evolution of ransomware in 2024. As a reminder, ransomware is malicious software whose objective is to encrypt data from a computer system. Thus, the user no longer has access to his data, as long as a ransom has not been paid to the hacker to unlock this data. In practice, hackers take advantage of the fear generated by this encryption, especially when targeting sensitive data. While so far the victims had tended to pay the ransom, the situation seems to have evolved in 2024. Thus, Chainalysis noted a 35 % drop in ransom paymentsgoing from a record of $ 1.25 billion in 2023 to approximately $ 813 million in 2024. Although one can think of a drop in activity on the hacker side, Chainalysis rather sees it as an evolution of the behavior of the behavior of side of the victims.
Fall in ransom payments in 2024. Indeed, companies, the main victims of these attacks, seem better informed. As a result, they are less inclined to set the note in the event of an attack.
«The reports of specialized companies suggest that a majority of customers choose not to pay at all, which means that the actual difference is more important than the figures below. »»
However, this is not the only factor to take into account. Thus, according to Chainalysis, this decrease is also explained by the rise of repressive measures And increased cooperation between international authorities, notably between the FBI and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The victims no longer allow themselves to be done
In addition to this, the victims also understood that they had a room for maneuver in cases of ransomware. Therefore, they turn more frequently to deciphering toolsallowing to recover, even partially, the data rather than yielding to blackmail to the ransom. In many cases, victims can also recover their data via recent backups. Even if it means making a cross on part of the data. The latter also understood that they were able to negotiate. As a result, ransoms which in the past could reach astronomical figures have largely decreased due to these negotiations between victims and hackers. Thus, the amounts paid by the victims were generally between 150,000 and 250,000 dollars,, regardless of initial requests.
«They can finally decide that a deciphering tool is their best option and negotiate a reduction in final payment, but more often than not, they note that catering from recent backups is the fastest and profitable solution»
Fortunately, there is justice in this world. Thus, it happens that hackers are in turn taken in their own game. This is what Dogwiftool software has recently learned, specializing in rugpulls, after a Hacker siphoned the wallets of these web 3 scammers. A return of Karma which is always pleasant to observe.