New Bitsight Analysis Reveals 43% Increase in Breach Data Shared on Underground Forums in 2024

Company also launches Bitsight Pulse, a personalized stream of cyber threat intelligence content, from ransomware to breaking news

LISBON, Portugal, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitsight, the global leader in cyber risk intelligence, today released a new report from its Bitsight TRACE Security Research Team analyzing cybercrime on the deep and dark web in 2024. The annual State of the Underground report leverages Bitsight IQ – embedded generative AI designed to simplify complex cyber risk data – to curate billions of cybercriminal activities, highlighting sharp increases in ransomware attacks, groups, and data breaches.

While ransomware threats are not new, they are becoming increasingly widespread due to the rapid dissemination of attack techniques, which is outpacing law enforcement's ability to dismantle attack groups.

Key findings from the report include:

• Ransomware attacks: Increased by 25% in 2024, while the number of ransomware group leak sites rose by 53%. The fragmentation caused by smaller, more agile gangs is leading to more attacks on mid-sized organizations.
• Data breaches: Increased by 43% in 2024, based on incidents shared across underground forums. U.S. organizations accounted for nearly 20% of victims.
• Compromised credentials: Bitsight identified 2.9 billion unique sets of compromised credentials in 2024, up from 2.2 billion in 2023.
• Compromised credit cards: Underground markets listed 14.5 million compromised credit cards in 2024, a 20% increase over 2023.

"The 25 percent surge in active ransomware attacks signals escalating sophistication of attackers and an increasingly complex threat landscape," said Dov Lerner, Staff Threat Researcher at Bitsight. "Combating these evolving threats requires more than layered defenses—it demands continuous visibility into exposed assets, insights into emerging threats, and the ability to prioritize action based on real-world risk."

The full report includes more findings on the scale of cybercrime activities, advice for security teams on how to protect your organization, and more. Download the full study here.

Bitsight Launches Bitsight Pulse to Empower Security Teams with AI-driven Intelligence

Alongside the new research, Bitsight also introduced Bitsight Pulse, an AI-driven Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) service that empowers security teams with a curated, real-time stream of personalized insights from across the deep and dark web, open source intelligence, and online news platforms.

With Bitsight Pulse, CISOs and security practitioners now have access to the following services through one unified platform:

• Consolidated threat intelligence – Bitsight Pulse aggregates events from numerous sources, including the deep and dark web, open-source intelligence, and online cybersecurity news, providing a reliable stream of CTI articles.
• Generative AI-powered insights – Utilizing Bitsight IQ, Bitsight Pulse converts raw data into structured, actionable intelligence, enriching each event with context such as summaries, threat actors, affected regions, and more.
• Customizable channels – Users can tailor CTI channels based on specific interests like ransomware, malware, attack surface, geography, or sector, and receive personalized news recommendations.
• Actionable intelligence delivery – Beyond delivering a stream of curated news, Bitsight Pulse enables users to dive deeper into topics by intelligently linking related articles and intel items. Users can also generate a Bitsight IQ report and engage with Bitsight IQ's AI chat capabilities to gather additional insights about specific events. Information can be easily shared through email links and downloadable documents.

"Security teams face information overload, lack context, experience delayed intel, and struggle with inefficient workflows," said Gregory Keshian, Chief Product Officer, Bitsight. "Bitsight Pulse delivers curated, relevant threat intelligence, empowering organizations to proactively defend against critical cyber threats, respond faster, and conserve valuable resources."

Bitsight Pulse is available within its cyber threat intelligence app, as a standalone solution,  or via API. The product will be available to demo at Bitsight's annual customer event, Luminate in Lisbon, Portugal on May 6-7. Visit the product blog for more information here.

About Bitsight
Bitsight is the global leader in cyber risk intelligence, helping teams make informed risk decisions with the industry's most extensive external security data and analytics. With 3,300 customers and 65,000 organizations active on its platform, Bitsight delivers real-time visibility into cyber risk and threat exposure—enabling teams to quickly identify vulnerabilities, detect threats, prioritize actions, and mitigate risk across their extended attack surface.

Built on over a decade of market-leading innovation, an unparalleled cyber dataset, and intelligence-driven workflows, Bitsight uncovers security gaps across infrastructure, cloud environments, identities, and third- and fourth-party ecosystems. From security operations and GRC teams to the boardroom, Bitsight provides the unified intelligence backbone organizations need to proactively address exposures before they impact performance.

For more information, visit bitsight.com, read our blog, or connect with us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Bitsight