The number of ransomware threats detected spiked to more than 1.2 million per month between the January-June period, a report has revealed. Even after technological advancements, cyber security is still a big issue. Service providers are unable to stop users from these attacks.

In the past 12 months, cyber-security researchers at Barracuda Networks identified and analyzed 106 highly publicized ransomware attacks.

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Here are some key observations from their one-year-long research.

Five most targeted industries

In their analysis, education, municipalities, healthcare, infrastructure, and finance, the key five industries were found as dominant and most targeted ones.

Researchers also observed a spike in the number of service providers that have been hit with a ransomware attack.

“Ransomware attackers remain defiant and continue to operate their business with extended extortion attempts. As ransomware and other cyber threats continue to evolve, the need for adequate security solutions has never been greater,” said Parag Khurana, Country Manager, Barracuda Networks India.

Attacks tripled on healthcare and financial verticals

The report on ransomware attacks identified and analyzed by Barracuda Networks showed that attacks on municipalities increased only slightly. But it increased by more than two folds in educational institutions and tripled in the healthcare and financial verticals.

Small businesses are key to gain larger organization access

In the report, it was found that many cybercriminals target small businesses to gain access to larger organizations.

The report suggested It is essential for security providers to create products that are easy to use and implement, regardless of a company’s size.

Most attacks not reported

The other surprising element was reported that most of the ransomware attacks don’t make headlines, though.

The major reason behind under reported cases of attacks were sophisticated data of small businesses which makes them tough to handle.

“Many victims choose not to disclose when they get hit, and the attacks are often sophisticated and extremely hard to handle for small businesses,” said the report.