It was another record-breaking year for ransomware. When file-locking malware wasn’t causing widespread disruption, like downing online services and lasting outages, ransomware was the cause of unprecedented data theft attacks affecting hundreds of millions of people, in some cases for life.
While governments have struck some rare wins against ransomware hackers over the past 12 months, including the disruption of the prolific LockBit gang and the seizure and takedown of Radar, these data theft and extortion attacks continue to increase dramatically, both in terms of frequency and sophistication.
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Source: TechCrunch
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