Nearly 34 Ransomware Variants Observed in Hundreds of Cyberattacks in Q4 2021

As many as 722 ransomware attacks were being observed during the fourth quarter of 2021, with LockBit 2., Conti, PYSA, Hive, and Grief emerging as the most widespread strains, in accordance to new investigate published by Intel 471.

The attacks mark an enhance of 110 and 129 attacks from the third and next quarters of 2021, respectively. In all, 34 distinct ransomware variants had been detected all through the 3-month-interval among Oct and December 2021.

“The most widespread ransomware strain in the fourth quarter of 2021 was LockBit 2., which was liable for 29.7% of all documented incidents, adopted by Conti at 19%, PYSA at 10.5%, and Hive at 10.1%,” the scientists said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Some of the most impacted sectors for the duration of the quarterly time period had been shopper and industrial goods producing skilled products and services and consulting genuine estate daily life sciences and overall health care technology, media and telecommunications strength, resources and agriculture community sector monetary solutions and nonprofit entities.

Of all the recorded LockBit 2. attacks, the international locations most afflicted integrated the U.S., adopted by Italy, Germany, France, and Canada. A the vast majority of the Conti bacterial infections were being also claimed in the U.S., Germany, and Italy. The U.S. remained the most impacted place for PYSA and Hive ransomware attacks as very well.

“Attacks impacting the customer and industrial items sector rose by 22.2% from the third quarter of 2021, earning it the most-impacted sector all through the fourth quarter,” the researchers claimed.

The findings arrive as a comparatively unknown ransomware pressure identified as Nokoyawa with “hanging similarities” to the Hive ransomware has appear to light-weight, with most of its targets positioned mainly in Argentina.

“Both of those Nokoyawa and Hive involve the use of Cobalt Strike as aspect of the arrival period of the attack, as well as the use of legitimate, but usually abused, instruments these types of as the anti-rootkit scanners GMER and Laptop Hunter for defense evasion,” Development Micro scientists thorough final 7 days.

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Some parts of this posting are sourced from:
thehackernews.com