On November 1, 2022, FinCEN issued its most recent Financial Trend Analysis of ransomware-related Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) filings for 2021, indicating that ransomware continued to pose a significant threat to U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, businesses, and the public. FinCEN’s report focuses on ransomware trends in BSA filings from July-December 2021, and addresses the extent to which a substantial number of ransomware attacks appear to be connected to actors in Russia.
From FinCEN Acting Director Himamauli Das’s statement:
“Today’s report reminds us that ransomware—including attacks perpetrated by Russian-linked actors— remain a serious threat to our national and economic security. It also underscores the importance of BSA filings, which allow us to uncover trends and patterns in support of whole-of-government efforts to prevent and combat ransomware attacks. Financial institutions play a critical role in helping to protect the United States from ransomware-related threats simply by fulfilling their BSA compliance obligations.”
The following are among the key findings in the FinCEN’s Financial Trend Analysis:
Reported ransomware-related incidents have substantially increased from 2020;
Ransomware-related BSA filings in 2021 approached $1.2 billion; and
Roughly 75 percent of the ransomware-related incidents reported to FinCEN during the second half of 2021 pertained to Russia-related ransomware variants.
Read FinCEN’s press release here.
The Financial Trend Analysis can be found here.
