Kroll’s Q4 analysis shows ransomware groups increasingly gaining initial access through external remote services. The quarter presented a complex security landscape with a mix of both positive and negative trends: positively, activity associated with larger ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations, like LOCKBIT and BLACKCAT, declined.

While businesses might have become more prepared for direct cyberattacks, 2023 demonstrated that unfortunately a business is only as secure as the organizations within their environment. Third-party risk, which is to say any risk to an organization by external parties in its ecosystem or supply chain, was the headline culprit in 2023.