Login
iscover
Share this article on:
Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
Powered by MOMENTUMMEDIA
The Zscaler ThreatLabz Ransomware Report reveals the alarming scale of ransomware-led data theft, with more than 230 terabytes stolen in just one year.
Australia has seen an alarming year-on-year increase in ransomware attacks, with the number of incidents rising by 110 per cent over the last 12 months.
The new data comes from Zscaler ThreatLabz and its just-released 2025 Ransomware Report, which also saw Australia ranking at number eight in the list of most targeted countries.
“The sharp rise in ransomware attacks in Australia reinforces a critical truth that no organisation is immune and no region is off-limits,” Heng Mok, CISO-in-residence, Asia-Pacific and Japan at Zscaler, said in a statement.
“This escalation reflects not just a growing number of adversaries, but the increasing sophistication of their tactics, often powered by GenAI. Leveraging AI tools such as ChatGPT and other dark web variants means that threat actors, regardless of sophistication level, can create more efficient, scalable and automated attacks democratising both the effort and costs of an attack.
“Now is the moment for businesses and government leaders across ANZ and APAC to reassess their cyber resilience and business-aligned cyber strategies. What’s required is a fundamental shift in strategy towards a modern defensible architecture, one that embraces zero-trust as the new foundation for security.”
The news is pretty grim globally, as well, and by comparison, Australia is actually doing quite well. Attacks blocked by Zscaler rose by 146 per cent globally, with public extortion cases – darknet leak posts, essentially – rose by 70 per cent.
The amount of data exfiltrated in successful attacks also rose by 70 per cent, adding up to a total data volume of 238 terabytes stolen in just one year – and that’s just from 10 of the major ransomware operations alone.
The United States remains the most targeted country, however, with more than 50 per cent of attacks occurring on US soil. Attacks targeting American organisations doubled, in fact, to 3,671 incidents, a figure that exceeds attacks against all other countries in the top 15 targeted countries combined.
The manufacturing industry bore the brunt of most of the attacks, followed by the technology and healthcare sectors.
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.
