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Ransomware Payouts Fell One-Third in 2024 Even as Attacks Held Steady, FinCEN Finds

The agency cites law enforcement disruptions of major gangs as a key factor.

Overview

  • Recorded ransom payments dropped to $734 million in 2024 from about $1.1 billion in 2023, a 33% decline, while reported incidents edged down 2% to 1,476.
  • FinCEN tallied 4,194 incidents from January 2022 through December 2024 with more than $2.1 billion paid, part of roughly $4.5 billion tracked from 2013 to 2024.
  • A small group of operations captured most of the money, with ALPHV/BlackCat around $395 million, LockBit about $252.4 million, and the top 10 families totaling $1.5 billion over 2022–2024.
  • Manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare surfaced most often in incident reports, and financial services bore the highest losses by dollars paid, followed by healthcare and manufacturing.
  • Bitcoin accounted for about 97% of reported ransom transactions, with smaller shares in Monero, Ether, Litecoin, and Tether.