New Delhi, Mar 21 (IANS): India is the second most targeted country by ransomware in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region in 2022, up from spot 3 in 2021, a new report said on Tuesday.

In 2022, Maharashtra was the most-targeted state with 36 per cent of ransomware attacks, while New Delhi was at second, according to the Palo Alto Networks 2023 Unit 42 Ransomware and Extortion report.

"Ransomware and extortion groups are forcing their victims into a pressure cooker, with the ultimate goal of increasing their chances of getting paid," said Wendi Whitmore, senior vice president and head of Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks.

Moreover, the report mentioned that manufacturing, construction, and professional & legal services were the most targeted industries.

The most active ransomware groups include Lockbit 2.0, BianLian, and Stormous.

Further, the report found that data theft was the most common of the extortion tactics, with 70 per cent of groups using it by late 2022 -- a 30 per cent increase from the year prior.

Organisations based in the US were most severely publicly affected, with 42 per cent of the observed leaks in 2022, followed by Germany and the UK, accounting for nearly 5 per cent each.

The report also said that 30 organisations on the Forbes Global 2000 list were publicly impacted by extortion attempts in 2022.

Since 2019, at least 96 of these organisations have had confidential files publicly exposed to some degree as part of attempted extortion.