Ransomware attacks in January 2020: 51 confirmed incidents

CONFIRMED RANSOMWARE ATTACKS · MONTH

Ransomnews has confirmed 51 ransomware attacks in January 2020, each one verified against a public source such as a breach notification, regulatory filing, court record or press report. That is 0.5% of the 9,715 confirmed incidents in the dataset. That compares with 58 in December 2019 and 20 in January 2019. The United States accounts for 37 of them (73%), with victims recorded in 10 countries in total. The most affected sector is government, with 15 confirmed victims (29%). Where the operator is attributed, Maze leads with 5 confirmed victims. A ransom payment is on the public record in 4 cases and a refusal in 19; the outcome is unrecorded in the remaining 28.

Confirmed ransomware attacks by month, trailing 13 months to January 2020

Every month is a partial count until disclosures stop arriving, which typically takes three to four months. Compare January 2020 with months of the same age rather than with fully matured ones.

Which ransomware groups had the most confirmed victims in January 2020

The operator is attributed in 20 of the 51 confirmed incidents. Counts are confirmed victims, not leak-site claims, so they run well below the totals the groups publish about themselves. Group names link to the live Ransomtracker profile where one exists.

Where the confirmed attacks in January 2020 fall

Country shares carry a reporting bias. United States breach-notification law and SEC disclosure rules push far more incidents onto the public record than most jurisdictions, which makes American attacks easier to confirm and inflates the US share of any confirmed dataset.

Ransom payment outcomes in January 2020

Among the 23 confirmed incidents in January 2020 where the outcome is on the public record, 4 paid and 19 refused, a disclosed payment rate of 17.4%. The remaining 28 carry no public statement either way. Victims that pay have every incentive to stay quiet and public bodies are the most likely to announce a refusal, so treat this as the disclosed rate, not the true one. The ransomware payment rate analysis explains how the disclosed rate has moved since 2018 and how it compares with incident-response firm samples.

Largest confirmed ransomware attacks in January 2020 by records exposed

Record counts are recorded only where a named source disclosed them, which is the minority of cases, so this table ranks disclosed impact rather than true impact.

All confirmed ransomware attacks in January 2020

All 51 of 51 confirmed incidents. Every row links to the public source it was verified against.

Frequently asked questions

How to read this page. Every incident counted here was verified by Ransomnews against at least one public source. Leak-site listings alone do not qualify, because operators inflate, duplicate and occasionally fabricate claims, so these totals are a defensible floor rather than a full census. Records exposed and ransom outcomes appear only where a named source disclosed them. The page is regenerated from the live database, which refreshes weekly. Cite as: Ransomnews Confirmed Ransomware Attacks Dataset, ransomnews.com, with a link to this page. Bulk access and methodology questions: [email protected]. See also the monthly ransomware statistics and the Ransomtracker.