Ransomware gangs are expanding their sights, exploiting small and large enterprises alike in the first half of 2023, a recently published report exploring cybersecurity trends has found.

According to Trend Micro‘s research, the company found that active ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups grew and and the number of victims surged in the first half of 2023.

The total active RaaS and RaaS-related groups grew by 11.3%, and the number of victims recorded grew by 45.27% compared to the last half of 2022.

The research focused on the top three ransomware groups responsible for the most victims in 2023 so far, including LockBit, BlackCat, and Cl0p.

Perhaps the most infamous group, LockBit, accounted for 26.09% of the total number of victim organisations targeted, with notable institutions like the Royal Mail, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacutirng Company, and Ion Group.

That said, the majority of LockBit’s targets were small businesses – those with 200 employees at most – with 57.3%. Large businesses made up about 17.4% of their victims, with mid-sized businesses making up just under a fifth (19.7%).

Nearly half (44.8%) of all of BlackCat’s targets were small businesses in the first half of 2023, followed by nearly a third (29.2%) being mid-sized businesses.

However, the gang did make some high profile attacks in 2023, including the Reddit attack in February.

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However, Cl0p bucked the trend, with exactly 50% of their attacks targeting large enterprises, those with over a thousand employees.

Their major ransomware attack in January which exploited the Fortra’s GoAnywhere file transfer software claimed to have compromised 130 organisations, including several hospitals in Canada.

In terms of industries, banking, retail, and transportation were the most targeted based on the number of ransomware file detections.

Meanwhile, IT, healthcare, and manufacturing were the most targeted sectors in the same terms.

The United States faces the most ransomware attacks, with 950 victims in the first half of 2023, with the UK falling far behind with 132 victims.