Chainalysis, a U.S.-based data, and software company said companies and corporations will pay around $620 million worth of ransoms in cyberattacks on cryptocurrencies in 2021, with Russian hackers believed to have done the most damage.
Kyodo news agency reports that the amount of compensation to be paid to hackers for ransomware attacks is increasing. In 2018, it already amounted to $39 million. In 2019, it was $152 million, and in 2020, $692 million. The trend still rising.
Conti, a Russian hacking group, was paid more than $180 million in 2021. The group has advocated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has attacked Ukraine in hopes of destroying the country’s infrastructure.
DarkSide, which launched an attack on colonial pipelines in the United States in May, has also launched high-profile attacks.
The most common form of a ransomware attack is embedded emails infected with viruses. In them, hackers extort companies to pay money for the recovery of data. The ransom is often collected in cryptocurrency to make it difficult to verify the origin of the money.