"The uptick in haphazard data destruction has led some victims to suffer significant data loss."
From Q3 to Q4 last year, the average ransom payment declined by 34%, reaching $154,108, while the median ransom payment dropped by 55% to $49,450.
That's a big change from what had been a monthslong increase in the number of ransoms and the amount being paid, driven by attackers increasingly stealing data and threatening to leak it online to better pressure victims into paying.
The most common type of ransomware tied to successful attacks that Coveware investigated in Q4 2020 was Sodinokibi, aka REvil, which accounted for nearly one-fifth of all cases. Other top strains were Egregor - the apparent successor to Maze - followed by Ryuk, NetWalker, Maze, Conti and DopplePaymer.