According to The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, there has been significant growth of cyber-attacks during 2021 in all its forms. Ranging from ransomware and all the way to DDOS and Firewall Breaches, there has been an average growth of ~21% compared to the previous years. In addition, our research staff has also seen a growth in fraud-related activity. Specifically in cryptocurrency-related schemes like Quantum AU which was exposed in on corporate watchdog website https://csracademy.org.uk
According to ENISA, ransomware Is deemed to be the most dominant threat during the years of 2020-2021.
Government-Backed Organizations
Hackers are being paid by governments through third parties in order to initiate attacks.
Cybercriminals Are Becoming More Brazen
The success of these cybercriminals is feeding their greed. This is why ransomware is becoming more prevalent.
Payments Through Cryptocurrencies
The vast majority of payments are done through cryptocurrencies for reasons related to anonymity. Malware is actually on the decline. There are newer programming languages that do the job just as well if not better.
Cryptojacking Infections
There is record growth in cryptojacking infections during 2021 compared to the previous year. This is when criminals hijack computers in order to mine cryptocurrencies. This is done through spoofed or infected websites such as Coinhive which was eventually shut down.
Covid-19 Uses Excessively As Baiting Tool From Spam Email Campaigns
Criminals are not oblivious to their environment and will use every trick in the book to get their way. Emotional blackmail is a very common tactic which is widely used as click bait.
Health Care Data Breaches
It seems cyber crooks have a particular affinity for health care data. Most likely because there are all kinds of affiliate marketers or promoters who are interested in acquiring new customers. This explains the increase in health care related data breaches in the EU.
DDoS or denial of service attacks are becoming more targeted and using multivector technologies. The Internet Of things, coupled with mobile networks is constantly new waves of DDoS attacks.
Non-Malicious Incidents
During 2020-2021 there was a marked increase in non-malicious incidents. This was partially due to human or configuration errors.