Ransomware is increasingly being targeted at large organisations with critical assets, and variants such as Ryuk that affected several hospitals in Victoria last year are thought to be the costliest out there, according to Malwarebytes Labs' 2020 State of Malware Report.

The release of the report comes as New Zealand-headquartered anti-malware firm Emsisoft calculates the total cost of ransom demands globally last year at a minimum of $6 billion, with Australia suffering losses of almost $40 million and New Zealand $6.5m.