Ransomware campaigns surged by 167% between Q4 of last year and the first three months of 2019, new research by Positive Technologies shows. Ransomware now accounts for 24% of all cyberattacks, up from 9% in Q4 of 2018.
The resurgence of ransomware coincides with a drop in cryptojacking, i.e. the illegitimate use of a system’s resourcing powers for mining cryptocurrency. During most of 2018, this trend was reversed. However, now that the value of cryptocurrency has declined and cryptojacking attacks have become more difficult to pull off, many threat actors are reverting back to ransomware.
The report identifies the top motivation behind cyber attacks as information gathering, such as in espionage campaigns (54%). This is followed by financial gain (30%), hacktivism (15%) and cyberwar (1%).
Read more: Ransomware rebounding in popularity as cryptojacking loses steam
