September saw the second highest number of ransomware attacks of the year with 65 publicly disclosed attacks and 392 undisclosed attacks. This represents a ratio of 6 to 1 undisclosed to disclosed attacks for the month.

The most dramatic change we saw this month from a sector perspective was the finance sector, seeing a 47% increase in attacks. The sectors of Healthcare, Government and Education continue to lead the way with increases of 13%, 15% and 18% respectively. Healthcare and Government are now more than double every other sector except Education as we move into the 4th quarter.

From a variant perspective we saw the biggest gains with Hunters International group with a 22% increase, followed by Medusa with 16%, reflecting their success across a broad range of sectors. In terms of unreported attacks, we saw a massive increase in attacks from RansomHub, with 53% growth this month, and expect this to be reflected in the reported attacks over the coming months.

China continues to dominate data exfiltration this month, with a 2% increase to 22%, following the 4% increase last month. Russia remains stable at around 5%, with 93% of all attacks involving some form of data exfiltration.