Security News > 2021 > December > Malware variants in 2021: Harder to detect and respond to

In addition to being more likely to encrypt a target's data, it shows that malware variants in 2021 are increasingly sophisticated and evasive, making it harder to detect and respond to them.

Malware variants evolving in 2021 Malware is rapidly becoming more sophisticated.

In 2020, on average, 9 malicious actions were exhibited by a single malware file, a figure which has risen to 11 actions per file in 2021.

The ATT&CK technique 'Data Encrypted for Impact' enters the report's top ten for the first time, with one in five malware variants now able to encrypt files.

These malware variants can change their behavior in a virtual machine environment or sandbox, which helps them evade detection and analysis.

"Variant has become a word that strikes panic into most people, but security teams have been concerned by the threat of new malware variants for years," said Dr Süleyman Özarslan, VP of Picus Security and Picus Labs.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/02/malware-variants-2021/