"Politically Motivated Ransomware Declines as Attackers Switch Back to Old Targets"

Ransomware operators have shifted their focus away from politically motivated attacks against Russia and toward their usual targets, including the US, China, and Israel. According to the ESET T2 2022 Threat Report, the total number of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) attack attempts has also decreased by 89 percent, likely because of the post-COVID-19 return to offices, improved security, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia was the most targeted country by ransomware in T1 2022, with some of the attacks being politically or ideologically motivated by the war. However, according to ESET T2 2022 Threat Report, this hacktivism wave has decreased in T2, and ransomware operators have shifted their focus. The Emotet malware remains a problem, despite its operators appearing to have taken a break in August. They have also adjusted to Microsoft's decision to disable Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros in Internet-sourced documents, focusing instead on campaigns based on weaponized Microsoft Office files and LNK files. This article continues to discuss key findings from the ESET T2 2022 Threat Report.

BetaNews reports "Politically Motivated Ransomware Declines as Attackers Switch Back to Old Targets"