In a report published by US insurance company Coalition, the high number of claims comes to confirm previous reports from multiple cyber-security firms that ransomware is one of today's most prevalent and destructive threats.

"Ransomware doesn't discriminate by industry. We've seen an increase in ransom attacks across almost every industry we serve", Coalition added.

"In the first half of 2020 alone, we observed a 260 per cent increase in the frequency of ransomware attacks amongst our policyholders, with the average ransom demand increasing 47 per cent", the company added.

Among the most aggressive gangs, the cyber insurer listed Maze and DoppelPaymer, which have recently begun exfiltrating data from hacked networks, and threatening to release data on specialized leak sites, as part of double extortion schemes.

Based on cyber insurance claims filed by customers who faced a ransomware attack in the first half of 2020, Coalition said the Maze ransomware gang was the most greedy, with the group requesting ransom demands six times larger than the overall average.