List of 2021’s Top Malware as per US, Australian Cybersecurity agencies
Image courtesy:CSO Online
On Monday, The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) published a joint advisory on 2021’s top malware strains.
CISA and ACSC have been observing ransomware, rootkits, spyware, trojans, viruses, and worms, but trojans dominated the landscape last year, when Agent Tesla, AZORult, Formbook, GootLoader, LokiBot, MouseIsland, NanoCore, Qakbot, Remcos, TrickBot, and Ursnif were the top malware strains.
As per the reports of CISA, some of the most prevalent malware families from the list have been there for more than five years, because of constant updates and evolution into multiple variants. Qakbot and Ursnif have been used for more than a decade.
Trojans like Agent Tesla, AZORult, Formbook, LokiBot, NanoCore, Remcos, and Ursnif are used to steal victims’ information while TrickBot, GootLoader, and Qakbot are used to deploy additional payloads.
Qakbot and TrickBot are also recognized for forming botnets, which are arranged to enable ransomware attacks.
TrickBot has been noticed for enabling initial access for Conti ransomware, which accounted for roughly 450 ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021.
The two malware families are run by the same group and a $15 million bounty has been offered by the US regarding the information on the gang’s leaders.
