Cyber Crime Gangs Earnings Fall As People Refuse To Pay

Cyber crime gangs have seen their earnings drop by 40% as more of their victims are refusing to pay them.

Cryptocurrency experts at Chainalysis say ransomware groups extorted at least $457m (£370m) from victims in 2022 – $311m less than the year before.

Analysts at Chainalysis said, ransomware payments are significantly down having tracked the ins and outs of Bitcoin wallets which are known to be owned by ransomware crews.

However, the company said they cannot account for all criminal proceeds, with hackers likely using other wallets too.

Despite the drop in criminal revenue, the number of attacks is still rising. Fortinet, a cyber security firm, found that more than 10,000 unique types of the malicious software were active in the first half of 2022.

The successful efforts made by western law enforcement to crackdown on cyber attacks has forced criminals to change tactics and carry out a greater number of smaller attacks instead of going after large Western targets where large payments are more likely.