Malware is becoming increasingly advanced, and researchers at OpenText Security Solutions recently sat down to discuss which forms of malware were the worst in 2022 with all things having been considered and taken into account. Their report called Nastiest Malware of 2022 sheds some light on a lot of new forms of malware, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it turns out that the worst malware of 2022 turned out to be the same one as last year.
This malware is called emotet, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that it has been a thorn in the side of the cybersecurity community for a long while. It managed to come back despite being shut down in 2021, but there are also some newer forms of malware that are worth keeping track of such as LockBit which has recently been evolving at a startling pace.
LockBit is a ransomware group that is now using three separate tactics for extortion. These include encrypting all of the data of their would be victims, threatening to leak the data and then finally implementing a DDoS attack. All of these methods can work as one to squeeze a lot of money out of ransomware victims, so while LockBit missed out on the top spot it is still making malware more dangerous than might have been the case otherwise.
Another malware group by the name of Conti, which gained notoriety earlier on in 2022 after supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, comes in at third place. Ethical hackers waged war against Conti because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing them from supporting Russia’s invasion, but the malware group managed to survive and broke into several smaller subgroups that continue to cause harm.
Finally in fourth place we can see the old gun Qbot. It is one of the most widely used infostealers, and it surpassed banking Trojan Valyria that stayed in fifth place due to its widespread attacks.
Via: Vectorjuice/freepik
Read next: Google Puts Its Cybersecurity Team In The Spotlight With New Docuseries
This malware is called emotet, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that it has been a thorn in the side of the cybersecurity community for a long while. It managed to come back despite being shut down in 2021, but there are also some newer forms of malware that are worth keeping track of such as LockBit which has recently been evolving at a startling pace.
LockBit is a ransomware group that is now using three separate tactics for extortion. These include encrypting all of the data of their would be victims, threatening to leak the data and then finally implementing a DDoS attack. All of these methods can work as one to squeeze a lot of money out of ransomware victims, so while LockBit missed out on the top spot it is still making malware more dangerous than might have been the case otherwise.
Another malware group by the name of Conti, which gained notoriety earlier on in 2022 after supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, comes in at third place. Ethical hackers waged war against Conti because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing them from supporting Russia’s invasion, but the malware group managed to survive and broke into several smaller subgroups that continue to cause harm.
Finally in fourth place we can see the old gun Qbot. It is one of the most widely used infostealers, and it surpassed banking Trojan Valyria that stayed in fifth place due to its widespread attacks.
Via: Vectorjuice/freepik
Read next: Google Puts Its Cybersecurity Team In The Spotlight With New Docuseries
