Security experts are predicting an unusual rise in ransomware attacks and a strategic change in the cybercrime ecosystem which is directed to evade detection and fail the existing defense mechanisms against it. As the ransomware attacks will expand in scale with a heightened influence, few dominant players currently present are expected to disperse themselves into multiple smaller ones.
Ransomware infects the victim's computer by locking down the hard drive and encrypting the data present onto the system, then the attacker asks the victim to pay the demanded ransom in due time and if the victim fails to do so, the data is gone forever. The virus spreads across infected networks via a worm and encrypts several machines in a row. After an in-depth analysis of various 'Windows security threats' such as coin miners, file-less malware, ransomware, PUAs, banking Trojans, Global cybersecurity company, Bitdefender concluded that out of all, the threat posed by ransomware is growing rapidly. Reportedly, it has grown 74 percent, year on year. GandCrab had been one of the most prevalent and sophisticated ransomware since its arrival in 2018, it kept on strengthening its defense and upgrading its delivery methods to bypass detections. After its death, ransomware experienced its first and indeed a steep fall in the cybercrime ecosystem in terms of severity of a particular threat. However, a new birth means several new players will enter the scene and might hit the security layers even harder than GandCrab, experts have the potential candidates under the radar. One such threat is being anticipated from 'Sodinokibi (aka REvil or Sodin)'.
The upsurge in ransomware attacks in 2019 has led the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to declare that it was nearing to qualify as a "large-scale cyber event." According to an August 2019 publication, ransomware "has rapidly emerged as the most visible cybersecurity risk playing out across our nation's networks."
"The fall of GandCrab, which dominated the ransomware market with a share of over 50 percent, has left a power vacuum that various spinoffs are quickly filling. This fragmentation can only mean the ransomware market will become more powerful and more resilient against combined efforts by law enforcement and the cybersecurity industry to dismantle it," the report reads.
