Australia was among the top 10 countries hit by a record surge in ransomware attacks in February 2025, according to Bitdefender’s latest report.
Ransomware incidents increased by 126% compared to the previous year, setting a new monthly record. In February 2025, 962 ransomware victims were reported worldwide, up from 425 in February 2024. The Clop (Cl0p) ransomware group accounted for 335 of these attacks, marking a significant rise in its activity.
Bitdefender’s report highlights a shift in tactics, with cybercriminals increasingly exploiting newly discovered vulnerabilities in internet-facing devices. These vulnerabilities are high-risk, remote code execution flaws that are widely used and quickly targeted after public disclosure.
The rise in attacks is partly linked to the Clop group’s use of vulnerabilities in Cleo file transfer software, exploited after their disclosure in late 2024.
Australia ranked sixth among the most targeted countries.
In a separate study, Surfshark reported that 47 million Australian accounts were exposed in data breaches in 2024, with one breach occurring every second. This marked a dramatic increase from 4.1 million accounts in 2023, making Australia the 11th most affected country globally. Since 2004, Australia has seen the highest number of breached accounts in Oceania, with over 49 million email addresses exposed.
