Surge in REvil, Darkside ransomware attacks in Q2 2021: McAfee Enterprise

Examining cybercriminal activities pertaining to ransomware and cloud threats, McAfee Enterprise saw a proliferation of REvil and Darkside ransomware in Q2 2021.

Prominent sectors, including government, financial services and entertainment, were the target where cybercriminals introduced new and updated threats and tactics. These findings are from the threat data gathered by the McAfee Global Threat Intelligence cloud from over a billion sensors across multiple threat vectors around the world.
 
The key findings of the report highlighted that 73 per cent of ransomware detections in Q2 2021 were related to the REvil/Sodinokibi family. DarkSide Q2 ransomware attacks extended beyond oil, gas and chemical sectors to legal services, wholesale and manufacturing.

United States, India, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Great Britain, Singapore and Germany are among the top 10 countries reporting such threats, while financial services sector was targeted the most as per the reported cloud incidents, followed by healthcare, manufacturing, retail and professional services.

While financial services was targeted in 50 per cent of the top 10 cloud incidents, including in the US, Singapore, China, France, Canada, and Australia; cloud incidents targeting verticals in the US accounted for 34 per cent of the incidents recorded, with a 19 per cent decrease in Great Britain. India ranked second in the number of cloud incidents, followed by Australia, Canada, and Brazil.

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In terms of threat activity in Q2 2021, the most targeted sector by ransomware was the government, followed by telecom, energy, and media and communications. In terms of attack vectors, malware was used most often in reported incidents. Spam showed the highest increase of reported incidents of 250 per cent from Q1 to Q2 2021, followed by malicious script with 125 per cent and malware with 47 per cent.

"Ransomware has evolved far beyond its origins, and cybercriminals have become smarter and quicker to pivot their tactics alongside a whole host of new bad-actor schemes," said Raj Samani, McAfee Enterprise fellow and chief scientist. "Names such as REvil, Ryuk, Babuk, and DarkSide have permeated into public consciousness, linked to disruptions of critical services worldwide. And with good measure, since the cybercriminals behind these groups, as well as others, have been successful at extorting millions of dollars for their personal gain."
 
McAfee Enterprise also tracked a 64 per cent increase in publicly reported cyber incidents targeting the public sector during the second quarter of 2021, followed by the entertainment sector with a 60 per cent increase. Information/communication had a 50 per cent decrease in Q2 2021, with manufacturing down 26 per cent.

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