Will Hackers Skip Ransomware Encryption Entirely?
The self-proclaimed culprit behind the new breach, World Leaks, is the rebranded name of a group once called the “Hunters International ransomware gang” — they’re now skipping the ransomware element of the data-extortion scheme, possibly to streamline the illegal process.
A February report from cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis found that ransomware payments had dropped dramatically between 2023 and 2024: Hackers were paid out a total of $321 million from July through December of last year, compared to $492 million during the same period in 2023.
If this new breach is any indication, however, hackers can still wreak havoc without bothering with the data encryption process that defines ransomware, and they may even get more attention by fully leaking the data online — even if there’s no indication just yet that they’ll actually get the payout that they are after.
