"US, Australian Cybersecurity Agencies Publish List of 2021's Top Malware"

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) have published a joint advisory to detail the top malware strains of 2021. The ACSC and CISA have been monitoring ransomware, rootkits, spyware, trojans, viruses, and worms, but trojans dominated the landscape last year. Last year, Agent Tesla, AZORult, Formbook, GootLoader, LokiBot, MouseIsland, NanoCore, Qakbot, Remcos, TrickBot, and Ursnif were the top malware strains. It was noted that some of the most prevalent malware families on the list have been around for more than five years due to constant updates and evolution into multiple variants. Qakbot and Ursnif have been used for more than a decade. The agencies stated that Agent Tesla, AZORult, FormBook, LokiBot, NanoCore, Remcos, and Ursnif are trojans used to steal victims’ information, while GootLoader, Qakbot, and TrickBot are used to deploy additional payloads. Qakbot and TrickBot are also known to form botnets, which are brokered to enable ransomware attacks. The agencies noted that malware developers continue to maintain, improve, and disseminate their code for several years, often as part of malware-as-a-service (MaaS) operations that return significant financial benefits at low risk. The agencies stated that to mitigate the risk of malware attacks, organizations should keep their software and operating systems updated, implement network segmentation, enforce multi-factor authentication, secure and monitor remote desktop protocol and other risky services, create offline backups of their data, and educate employees and users on how to identify social engineering and phishing attempts.

SecurityWeek reports: "US, Australian Cybersecurity Agencies Publish List of 2021's Top Malware"