As entire businesses switched to remote work last year due to COVID-19, cybercrime was at an all-time high. The pandemic gave cybercriminals the opportunity to discover new malware families, successful tactics, and “double extortion” strategies. Malewarebytes, an American Internet security company that specializes in protecting technology devices and companies from malware and other threats, released its 2021 State of Malware Report observing trends in detections, attacks, and reporting throughout 2020. Malewarebytes identified four primary goals of cybercriminals in the report: exploit fear, gather intelligence, upgrade, and attack.
The first goal involved preying on people’s fears to get them to click on links or open attachments that contained malware. According to the report, “2020 was no different, and COVID-19 made a nice hook for cybercriminals.” Malewarebytes found malicious phishing campaigns that posed as health advisories and numerous state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups using themed spear phishing email.
In tandem with exploiting fear, cybercriminals also gathered intelligence about their targets. They did so by leaning heavily on “information stealers, spyware, and tools that collected information” to understand what tools and resources employees would rely on.
The third goal targeted updates and upgrades. Malewarebytes saw an abundance of updates from some of the biggest purveyors of malware. Emotet stole existing email threads and there was an increase in malicious spam posing as communications from Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack.
The final goal of attack took on a whole new meaning during COVID-19. According to the report, “the increase in brute force attacks, combined with the deployment of customized intrusion tools, new exploits, and the use of sometimes commercial tools... allowed attackers to map out and infect networks faster than we have ever seen.” Ransomware actors also became more diverse, attacking organizations with double extortions and helping affiliates pick up new ransomware families to distribute.
Malewarebytes does not expect cybercriminals to alter their behavior much this year, but it does foresee threat actors shifting their tactics to improve their effectiveness. It is vital to understand that cybercrime comes in many forms including identity theft, financial fraud, online bullying, hacking, and more.
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