Consumer Cyclicals
Figure 11: Total Consumer Cyclicals Victims Month-by-Month 2022 vs 2023
Consumer Cyclicals experienced a less explosive increase from 2022 to 2023 when compared to 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, the sector saw a 5% relative decrease when totalling its contribution to all ransomware cases in 2023, implying that for that year Consumer Cyclicals was less of a focus for threat actors. It is possible that this is because of the heightened threat actor interest in the Industrials sector, causing Consumer Cyclicals to be less targeted. As can be seen in Figure 11, the apparent cause of the increase in absolute figures in 2023 is a heightened interest in the sector from June onwards, which consistently surpasses that of the previous year. However, this is again directly proportional to the overall threat actor activity within the year, so this does not necessarily indicate a specific focus on
Consumer Cyclicals in the latter half of the year. Consumer Cyclicals will likely continue to be heavily targeted for the foreseeable future due to the nature of the industries existing within. Organisations operating within Hotels & Entertainment Services as well as various retailers will be targeted for very similar reasons; their constant influx of new clientele and thus their access to payment details and information, alongside other PII such as email addresses and sometimes home addresses. Contrastingly, organisations under the manufacturing umbrella (such as Automobiles & Auto Parts and Homebuilding & Construction Supplies) are more likely to be targeted due to their need for operational uptime which, once disturbed, can cause major profit losses which incentivises ransom payments.
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