Clifford Chance

Ransomware Playbook January 2022

January 31, 2022

Ransomware attacks have dramatically increased in volume and become more sophisticated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with no sign of slowing down. In 2021, governments and private entities both have reported surges in attacks. As one example, in just the first half of 2021, the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network received USD 590 million in ransomware-related suspicious activity reports, over a 40% increase compared to such reports received in all of 2020. And while companies have become more resilient to such attacks, attackers continue to succeed in wreaking havoc on valuable IT systems and critical data. In a survey conducted in early 2021 of 5,400 IT decision makers employed by a range of organizations across 30 countries, over one-third reported being the target of a ransomware attack—and over half reported that the attackers were successfully able to infect their systems.

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