The number of ransomware attacks, where personal data is stolen, encrypted and offered back to victims in exchange for a ransom, more than doubled last year and have more than tripled since 2019.

Ransomware threat intelligence publisher SonicWall said in its 2022 Cyber Threat Report that the number of ransomware attacks globally rose 105% to 623.3m in 2021, with such attacks having increased 232% from fewer than 200m in 2019.

According to the biannual report, nearly all monitored threats, cyberattacks and malicious digital assaults rose last year, including ransomware, encrypted threats, Internet of Things (IOT) malware and cryptojacking.

"Attacks on networks rose to a fever pitch in 2021,” Dmitriy Ayrapetov, SonicWall vice president of platform architecture, said. “Ransomware, cryptojacking, vulnerably exploitation, phishing and other attacks continue to plague [organisations] around the world and overwhelm security teams.

"It’s important to understand the breakdown of these attacks and why they continue to be successful, as well as the drivers and trends behind them.”

In Association with

Encrypted attacks rose 167% year-on-year, with the number of attacks breaking 1m for the first time in August and rising to nearly 2.5 by year's end, while cryptojacking attempts surged, increasing 19% globally to 97.1m, the most attacks threat researchers have ever recorded in a single year.

IoT malware volume rose 6% to 60.1m hits in 2021, following successive years in which volume rose by 218% and 66%, indicating a levelling off in attacks.

“Cyberattacks become more attractive and potentially more disastrous as dependence on information technology increases,” said Bill Conner, SonicWall President and CEO.

“Securing information in a boundless world is a near impossible and thankless job, especially as the boundaries of [organisations] are ever-expanding to limitless endpoints and networks.”

All industries faced large increases of ransomware volume, including government (+1,885%), healthcare (+755%), education (+152%) and retail (+21%).

Malware was down for the third straight year, however, hitting a seven-year low, but there was an uptick in attacks in the second half of the year, resulting in a 22% drop becoming a 4% drop by the end of 2021.

The recently discovered vulnerability in Java logging library Apache Log4j was also ruthlessly exploited by bad actors, with 142.2m exploit attempts or 2.7m attempts per day logged between 11 December and 31 January.

The report comes after gardai confirmed they were investigating a ransomware attack affecting the 3,000+ members of the Royal Dublin Society, which saw perpetrators steal a trove of personal data and some people's bank details.

(Pic: Getty Images)