Businesses in the U.S. paid out about $1.2 billion in ransomware payments in 2021, a new record and triple the amount from 2020, CNBC reported.
The number represents the payments that U.S. banks and financial institutions processed to possible cybercriminals and reported as suspicious to federal authorities, according to the Nov. 1 story.
More than half the attacks were committed by Russian hackers, according to data from the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the news outlet reported.
Healthcare has been hit hard by ransomware attacks so far in 2022, with a quarter of them aimed at the sector, the most of any critical infrastructure industry, according to FBI data. Chicago-based CommonSpriit Health, one of the nation's largest health systems, has been dealing with a ransomware incident that has disrupted the IT networks of its hospitals across the country.