Prevent Ransomware Blog

Ransomware Attack Severity Surges 68%—Is Your Business Ready?

Written by Tony Chiappetta | Feb 4, 2025 10:00:00 AM

Ransomware Attack Severity Increased 68% in H1 2024—What It Means for Your Business

According to a recent HIPAA Journal report, ransomware attacks are not only growing in frequency but also in impact. The severity of ransomware incidents surged by 68% in the first half of 2024, highlighting the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals and the failure of traditional cybersecurity models to keep up.

For business owners, this is not just a healthcare issue—it’s a stark warning that the cybersecurity landscape is changing rapidly. If your business is still relying on traditional "Detect and Respond" security strategies, you may already be too late when an attack occurs.

Ransomware Is Getting More Devastating

The report underscores a troubling trend: ransomware attacks are becoming more damaging, with attackers demanding higher ransoms, stealing sensitive data, and causing extended operational disruptions. The key findings include:

  • More severe attacks: The average impact of ransomware incidents has grown significantly.
  • Longer recovery times: Businesses are taking longer to recover, with downtime costing millions.
  • Increased targeting of critical sectors: Healthcare, finance, and manufacturing continue to be prime targets, but no industry is safe.

Cybercriminals are evolving their tactics, deploying AI-assisted malware, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, and bypassing endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions that were once considered effective.

Why "Detect and Respond" No Longer Works

Most businesses still rely on traditional EDR and antivirus solutions, which focus on identifying threats after they have already entered the system. But the modern ransomware threat landscape moves too fast for this approach to be effective.

By the time a breach is detected, attackers have often already exfiltrated data, encrypted systems, or established persistent access points for future exploitation. Reacting after the fact is no longer an option.

The Solution: Isolation and Containment with AppGuard

Instead of playing a losing game of cat and mouse with cybercriminals, businesses must adopt a proactive defense strategy: Isolation and Containment.

AppGuard offers a fundamentally different approach to endpoint security—one that stops ransomware and malware before they execute. Here’s how:

Prevents malware from executing: Unlike EDR, AppGuard does not rely on signatures or behavior analysis to detect threats. Instead, it prevents malicious code from running at all.

Blocks lateral movement: Even if an endpoint is compromised, AppGuard isolates the threat, preventing it from spreading to other systems in your network.

No need for constant updates: AppGuard’s zero-trust execution policy stops both known and unknown threats, including zero-day attacks.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

The surge in ransomware severity is a wake-up call for businesses. It’s time to move beyond "Detect and Respond" and adopt an "Isolation and Containment" strategy.

At CHIPS, we help businesses implement AppGuard, a proven endpoint protection solution with a 10-year track record of success that is now available for commercial use. Don’t wait until your business becomes another ransomware statistic—protect it now.

📞 Contact us today to learn how AppGuard can prevent ransomware attacks before they happen.

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