The war between Russia and Ukraine has drawn some cybercriminals away from monetarily driven cyberattacks — such as the typical ransomware attack — and toward hacktivism.

Despite that, the number of ransomware attacks is still expected to grow this year, according to a leading cybersecurity company. Directors shouldn’t take some hackers’ new focus as a signal to divert their own attention from the still-growing ransomware threat, sources say.

…Threat researchers at cybersecurity company SonicWall recorded over 623 million ransomware attacksglobally in 2021. That represents a 105% increase over 2020.

…Cybersecurity is an area where board members often don’t have expertise; according to a March report from public company intelligence provider MyLogIQ, just 11% of S&P 500 directors disclosed having cyber expertise in proxy statements from 2021 and 2022.