Security News > 2022 > March > Trends, threats and techniques that comprised the 2021 threat landscape

Ransomware dominated the threat landscape in 2021, with groups adopting new techniques such as double extortion and "As-a-service" models to evade detection and maximize their earnings, a Red Canary report reveals.

The report describes the new tactics that ransomware groups used in 2021, such as double extortion, which applies pressure to victims in more than one way to coerce them to pay a ransom.

Examples of this include the Bazar and Qbot trojans, used by adversaries to gain initial access into environments before passing off access to ransomware or other threat groups.

The report analyzes several new ransomware families that became more prevalent in 2021, including BlackByte, Grief, Hive, Yanluowang, Vice Society and CryptoLocker/Phoenix Locker, while also taking a look at the families that tapered off, like Egregor, REvil, BlackMatter and Doppelpaymer.

Many of the emergent ransomware families were similar to those that became less or inactive, leading analysts to assess that known adversaries resurfaced using a new name.

The threat landscape moved toward a Software-as-a-Service economy in 2021, muddying the already murky waters of attribution.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/25/ransomware-dominated-threat-landscape/