Article after article, every day we seem to hear of another successful ransomware attack against a public or private institution. In fact, the numbers are much higher with research showing 2,084 ransomware attacks in the U.S. in the first half of 2021 alone—a 62% increase from the same period in 2020. And these are just complaints reported to the FBI. The truth is ransomware attacks have been going on for years, and we even see the same organizations falling victim multiple times.

So, why is ransomware on the rise and such a challenge to protect against these zero-day attacks? Here, we’ll examine some of the key factors that contributed to the rise of ransomware attacks as well as recent initiatives and innovations that enable defenders to better mitigate risk and stop attacks before they start.