January 5, 2023

In 2022, threat actors made huge profits from ransomware attacks, which impacted 200 large organizations in the U.S. public sector, including the government, education, and healthcare sectors.

In America alone, there are 1,981 schools, 290 hospitals, 105 local governments, and 44 universities and colleges.

In total, 105 state and municipal government agencies reported being affected by ransomware attacks encrypting files and servers in 2022, an increase from 77 reported attacks on government in 2021.

According to Emsisoft, a cybersecurity firm that examined disclosure statements, press reports, and information posted on the dark web. Emsisoft also stated that not all victims report such incidents, and some of them may have gone unnoticed by the researchers. This suggests that the true impact of ransomware is likely to be much greater.

Attacks on private sector companies that may have disrupted operations in the infrastructure segments counted, such as managed security service providers, are also not included in the report, according to Emsisoft.

Hackers involved in the incidents Emsisoft counted stolen money and/or data in roughly half of these cases, not including an Arkansas mainframe malware attack that spread to 55 counties and radically skewed the data.

The sources for this piece include an article in BleepingComputer.