Last month brought a record number of ransomware attack reports, and Australia was among the top six countries targeted. 

Cybersecurity group Bitdefender says there were 962 victim reports, up 126% on a year earlier. The Clop crime group claimed it was behind 335 of the attacks.  

The countries that “took the biggest hit” were the US, Canada, UK, Denmark, France, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Sweden.

“We can’t independently verify all of these claims, but we can feel quite confident in the trends we see over time,” Bitdefender said.  

It says the surge is due to ransomware gangs targeting newly discovered software vulnerabilities in edge network devices, which allow attackers to remotely take control of systems. 

“In less than 24 hours of the vulnerability’s public disclosure, threat actors launch automated scanners that scan the internet and establish remote access to vulnerable systems,” Bitdefender said.

“After this initial access blitz comes the second stage of the attack – the manual hacking of the victims.”

The ransomware attack or data theft typically happens weeks or months later. 

Bitdefender advises prioritising patches for exploited vulnerabilities and maintaining awareness of known gaps.