From 2021 to 2024, the share of financial institutions worldwide experiencing ransomware attacks has increased significantly. In 2024, roughly 65 percent of financial organizations worldwide reported experiencing a ransomware attack, compared to 64 percent in 2023 and 34 percent in 2021.

A 2024 survey of cybersecurity professionals of organizations worldwide revealed that 32 percent of the organizations suffered ransomware attacks because of exploited vulnerabilities. Credential compromise was the second-most common cause of successful ransomware attacks, while malicious e-mail ranked third.

On average, 59 percent of organizations worldwide were victims of a ransomware attack between January and February 2024, according to a survey conducted among cybersecurity leaders of worldwide organizations. France ranked first by the ransomware rate in companies, with 74 percent reporting having encountered such an attack in the last 12 months. Companies in South Africa, Italy, and Austria followed, with up to 69 percent of the organizations experiencing ransomware attacks.

These latest ransomware statistics show how much damage is caused by attacks and the emerging trends you need to be aware of.

Here are the most important ransomware statistics you need to know about the attacks, demands, payments and consequences that can occur.

While every industry is affected by ransomware attacks, the truth is that some industries are more susceptible than others. This is the full breakdown of the top 15 sectors most targeted by malware.

On average, 37% of organisations globally were victims of a ransomware attack between January and February 2021. The top 15 countries that were affected the most were...

📌 Context of the Dataset

The Healthcare Ransomware Dataset was created to simulate real-world cyberattacks in the healthcare industry. Hospitals, clinics, and research labs have become prime targets for ransomware due to their reliance on real-time patient data and legacy IT infrastructure. This dataset provides insight into attack patterns, recovery times, and cybersecurity practices across different healthcare organizations.

Why is this important?

Ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations can shut down entire hospitals, delay treatments, and put lives at risk. Understanding how different healthcare organizations respond to attacks can help develop better security strategies. The dataset allows cybersecurity analysts, data scientists, and researchers to study patterns in ransomware incidents and explore predictive modeling for risk mitigation.

📌 Sources and Research Inspiration This simulated dataset was inspired by real-world cybersecurity reports and built using insights from official sources, including:

1️⃣ IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report (2024)

The healthcare sector had the highest average cost of data breaches ($10.93 million per incident). On average, organizations recovered only 64.8% of their data after paying ransom. Healthcare breaches took 277 days on average to detect and contain.

2️⃣ Sophos State of Ransomware in Healthcare (2024)

67% of healthcare organizations were hit by ransomware in 2024, an increase from 60% in 2023. 66% of backup compromise attempts succeeded, making data recovery significantly more difficult. The most common attack vectors included exploited vulnerabilities (34%) and compromised credentials (34%).

3️⃣ Health & Human Services (HHS) Cybersecurity Reports

Ransomware incidents in healthcare have doubled since 2016. Organizations that fail to monitor threats frequently experience higher infection rates.

4️⃣ Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Alerts

Identified phishing, unpatched software, and exposed RDP ports as top ransomware entry points. Only 13% of healthcare organizations monitor cyber threats more than once per day, increasing the risk of undetected attacks.

5️⃣ Emsisoft 2020 Report on Ransomware in Healthcare

The number of ransomware attacks in healthcare increased by 278% between 2018 and 2023. 560 healthcare facilities were affected in a single year, disrupting patient care and emergency services.

📌 Why is This a Simulated Dataset?

This dataset does not contain real patient data or actual ransomware cases. Instead, it was built using probabilistic modeling and structured randomness based on industry benchmarks and cybersecurity reports.

How It Was Created:

1️⃣ Defining the Dataset Structure

The dataset was designed to simulate realistic attack patterns in healthcare, using actual ransomware case studies as inspiration.

Columns were selected based on what real-world cybersecurity teams track, such as: Attack methods (phishing, RDP exploits, credential theft). Infection rates, recovery time, and backup compromise rates. Organization type (hospitals, clinics, research labs) and monitoring frequency.

2️⃣ Generating Realistic Data Using ChatGPT & Python

ChatGPT assisted in defining relationships between attack factors, ensuring that key cybersecurity concepts were accurately reflected. Python’s NumPy and Pandas libraries were used to introduce randomized attack simulations based on real-world statistics. Data was validated against industry research to ensure it aligns with actual ransomware attack trends.

3️⃣ Ensuring Logical Relationships Between Data Points

Hospitals take longer to recover due to larger infrastructure and compliance requirements. Organizations that track more cyber threats recover faster because they detect attacks earlier. Backup security significantly impacts recovery time, reflecting the real-world risk of backup encryption attacks.

Different types of ransomware are more common than others and more likely to affect your cybersecurity. The top 5 most common types of ransomware strains are...

The following ransomware statistics detail which industries get attacked the most and which countries are most likely to be targeted.

A 2024 survey of cybersecurity professionals of worldwide organizations revealed that the energy and utilities industry had the highest number of vulnerabilities exploited in ransomware attacks. The survey showed that the second-most common root cause of ransomware attacks was compromised credentials across all sectors, followed by malicious e-mail.

The main goal of any ransomware attacker is to hold people to ransom by not releasing their data until they get paid. But is it actually a good idea to pay the ransom? Here’s what the ransomware statistics tell us about organisations that paid up.

Here are the leading causes of ransomware attacks today.

Between the second and third quarters of 2024, the software development sector experienced the highest quarterly increase in the number of ransomware attack, rising by 16.7 percent. Hospitals and healthcare system followed, with a 12.8 percent increase. In contrast, IT services and IT consulting recorded a decline of 9.3 percent in ransomware activity.

Acknowledgment to supporters: "Thank you to everyone who supported the UGRansome dataset; it has received a Bronze medal on Kaggle!"

The UGRansome dataset is a versatile cybersecurity resource designed for the analysis of ransomware and zero-day cyber-attacks, particularly those exhibiting cyclostationary behavior. This dataset features various essential components, including timestamps for attack time tracking, flags for categorizing attack types, protocol data for understanding attack vectors, network flow details to observe data transfer patterns, and ransomware family classifications.

It also provides insight into the associated malware, numeric clustering for pattern recognition, and quantifies financial damage in both USD and bitcoins (BTC). The dataset employs machine learning to generate attack signatures and offers synthetic signatures for testing and simulating cybersecurity defenses.

Additionally, it can be used to identify and document anomalies, contributing to anomaly detection research and enhancing cybersecurity understanding and preparedness. This dataset offers valuable information for researchers and practitioners interested in leveraging it for various analytical and investigatory purposes such as ransomware and zero-day threats detection and classification. The dataset required deduplication and transformation.

The UGRansome dataset has been previously utilized in studies by Tokmak (2022); Alhashmi et al. (2024); Chaudhary & Adhikari (2024); Sokhonn, Park, & Lee (2024); P. Yan et al. (2024), Sharath Kumar et al. (2024), and Mohamed, A.A., Al-Saleh, A., Sharma, S.K. et al. (2025).

It has been utilized and cited in several master's dissertations and reports, demonstrating its relevance in the field of anomaly intrusion detection. Notable examples include:

S. R. Zahra, 2022. "UGRansome: Optimal Approach for Anomaly Intrusion Detection and Zero-day Threats using Cloud Environment." Master's Research in Cloud Computing, School of Computing, National College of Ireland. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365172610_UGRansome_Optimal_Approach_for_Anomaly_Intrusion_Detection_and_Zero-day_Threats_using_Cloud_Environment_MSc_Research_Project_Cloud_Computing/citations

B. Torky, 2023. "Ensemble Methods for Anomaly Detection in Enterprise Systems." Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai. Advisor: Sanjay Modak.https://repository.rit.edu/theses/11497/

A. Igugu, 2024. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of AI and Machine Learning Techniques for Zero-Day Attacks Detection in Cloud Environments" Master of Science in Information Security, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering. Supervisor: Dr. Saguna. Examiner: Prof. Christer Ahlund. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1890285/FULLTEXT02

Duran, M., duSoft Yazılım, A.Ş. and Kilinc, H., 2024. D2. 1–Academic and Technology SoTA Report. Sierra (Panel), 1, pp.26-11. Edited by: Hakan Kilinc (Orion, Türkiye), Eva Catarina Gomes Maia (ISEP, Portugal), Orhan Yildirim (Beam Teknoloji, Türkiye), Gabriela Sousa (VisionWare, Portugal), Özgü Özkan, Melike Çolak, Nesil Bor (Bites, Türkiye), Daniel Esteban Villamil Sierra (Panel, Spain). https://itea4.org/project/vesta.html

Kaliberda A. A. Development of an anti-virus solution based on neural networks: master's thesis; Ural Federal University, Institute of Radio Electronics and Information Technologies-RTF, Department of Information Technologies and Control Systems. Russia — Yekaterinburg, 2024. — 52 p. http://elar.urfu.ru/handle/10995/140331

These citations underline the impact of the UGRansome in advancing research on intrusion detection and cybersecurity:

• Mohamed, A.A., Al-Saleh, A., Sharma, S.K. et al. Zero-day exploits detection with adaptive WavePCA-Autoencoder (AWPA) adaptive hybrid exploit detection network (AHEDNet). Sci Rep 15, 4036 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-87615-2

• P. Yan, T. T. Khoei, R. S. Hyder and R. S. Hyder, "A Dual-Stage Ensemble Approach to Detect and Classify Ransomware Attacks," 2024 IEEE 15th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), Yorktown Heights, NY, USA, 2024, pp. 781-786, doi: 10.1109/UEMCON62879.2024.10754695.

• Por, L.Y., Dai, Z., Leem, S.J., Chen, Y., Yang, J., Binbeshr, F., Phan, K.Y. and Ku, C.S., 2024. A Systematic Literature Review on the Methods and Challenges in Detecting Zero-Day Attacks: Insights from the Recent CrowdStrike Incident. IEEE Access.

• Torky, B., Karamitsos, I., Najar, T. (2024). Anomaly Detection in Enterprise Payment Systems: An Ensemble Machine Learning Approach. In: Emrouznejad, A., Zervopoulos, P.D., Ozturk, I., Jamali, D., Rice, J. (eds) Business Analytics and Decision Making in Practice. ICBAP 2024. Lecture Notes in Operations Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-...

In the third quarter of 2024, Healthcare was the industry in the United States most impacted by ransomware attacks, with 18.6 percent of annual attacks targeting the industry. Consumer services ranked second, with 14.4 percent of the attacks, followed by the public sector, with 11.3 percent.

In 2024, healthcare organizations in California saw the highest number of ransomware attacks among other U.S. states. The state experienced in total of 66 ransomware attacks in the measured year. Texas ranked second, by the number of healthcare ransomware attacks, followed by New York.

In November 2024, the number of reports about ransomware attacks worldwide reached its highest point, 632 cases. Overall, the number of victims fluctuated in the last two years, reaching 527 in May 2024.

In 2024, 74 percent of organizations in France encountered a cyberattack. This represents a decrease of approximately 11 percent from the previous year. In 2023, 97 percent of companies in France that had suffered a cyberattack restored the encrypted data.

Market Summary of Cyber Security Consulting Market:

• Global Cyber Security Consulting market size 2023 was XX Million. Cyber Security Consulting Industry compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be XX% from 2024 till 2031. • The Cyber Threats and cyberattacks are driving the cyber-Security consulting the market's rapid growth along with Increase in the need for security in BFSI Sector. • The COVID-19 had presented obstacles for enterprises as they adjust to a work environment where telecommuting has turned into the new normal. Businesses were moving more quickly towards digital transformation, and cybersecurity is becoming a top priority • The dominating segment is the IT and Telecom. Mobile phones, smart IoT devices, data traffic subscribers, and SIM connections have all increased astronomically in the world. Because of this, network operators can now offer a significantly wider range of services, which requires them to handle more data security. • North America is the dominating region in this market due to the prevalence of large and mid-sized organization’s is rising, which is increasing the number of hosted servers and the frequency of cyberattacks.

Market Dynamics of Cyber Security Consulting Market:

Key Drivers of Cyber Security Consulting Market

Cyber Threats and cyberattacks are driving the cyber-Security consulting the market's rapid growth.

The growing threat landscape, which includes data breaches and ransomware assaults, is a major factor in the rise of cybersecurity consulting services. The Internet is becoming more and more popular across all industries as a result of digitization and technical improvements. The likelihood of cyberattacks rises with increased Internet usage. Cyberattacks are a major global threat that result in the loss of personal, corporate, and governmental data. Businesses are always under pressure to make sure their digital assets are safe from internet attacks, and cybersecurity threats are getting more complex. Consulting on cybersecurity is essential for protecting your company from possible dangers and lowering the likelihood of cyberattacks.Hence, These consulting services give companies the knowledge and resources they need to spot security flaws, create strong defences against online attacks, and keep their systems safe. Organisations can discover potential vulnerabilities and threats to their digital assets, such as sensitive information, financial data, and intellectual property, by conducting cybersecurity risk assessments, which is a crucial procedure. For Instance, The cybersecurity company Kaspersky issued a warning, stating that similar cyberthreats are likely to come India's way. The country saw over 200,000 ransomware attacks in 2023. Large ransomware gangs like Fonix and LockBit attacked companies in India and throughout the world in industries like manufacturing, retail, healthcare, agriculture, and media. (Source:https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/new-ransomware-attacks-still-keeping-indian-cyberspace-at-risk-kaspersky-424512-2024-04-05) Cybersecurity experts detect risks to a company's computer systems and networks, analyse security concerns, determine risk, and put remedies into place. In an IT environment that is evolving quickly, they create layers of protection and deal with a variety of issues while evaluating security systems. Ransomware, phishing, and hacking are examples of cybersecurity threats that have grown in sophistication along with technology. Attacks on servers known as total distributed denial of service (DDoS) cause disruptions to user access. Thus, it is essential to identify cyber threats and use strong cyber security consulting to guard against such breaches in order to implement a system with more robust security features.

Increase in the need for security in BFSI Sector, drives the market for Cyber Security Consulting Market.

Following demonetization, digital payments have become more popular than ever before, underscoring the necessity of security policies and programmes for India's banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry. While financial institutions worldwide are concentrating on improving their programmes to prevent cyber threats, BFSI institutions continue to fail to recognise the significance and consequences of cyb...