The average ransom demand hit $2.2 million in 2021, a 144 percent rise from the year prior, according to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 consultants, while the average ransom payment grew 78 percent to $541,010. The research and consultancy outfit latest ransomware report, issued this week, pulls data from cases handled by Unit 42 along with analysis of ransomware gangs’ leak sites.  These findings, combined with another ransomware report released this week from the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, paints a disturbing picture of cyber criminals’ increasingly brazen tactics, and how difficult it is for organizations of all sizes to defend themselves.

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