Security Experts Witnessed a 55,239% Increase in Ransomware Activity in Q2

Nuspire's Threat Report provides data and insight into malware, exploit and botnet activity throughout Q2 of 2021

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Sep 13, 2021, 09:00 ET

COMMERCE, Mich., Sept. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuspire, a leading managed security services provider (MSSP), today announced the release of its 2021 Q2 Quarterly Threat Landscape Report. Sourced from 90 billion traffic logs, the report outlines new cybercriminal activity and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) with additional insight from its threat intelligence partner, Recorded Future.

In a recent Forrester podcast, security analysts discuss ransomware attacks becoming more common and more damaging. "Critical infrastructure organizations like hospitals or energy providers are more lucrative targets for attackers because the impact of their shutdown is more immediate and could threaten lives, forcing victims to pay the ransom quickly."

In Q2 2021, Nuspire security experts witnessed a 55,239% increase in ransomware activity just a few weeks prior to the Colonial Pipeline Ransomware attack conducted by DarkSide Ransomware group. The reason for the increase is not known and it may not be related to Colonial Pipeline, but one can speculate that the increase could be from the same campaign with Colonial Pipeline.

"This quarter, and even this year, we experienced some of the most significant and disruptive ransomware attacks our industry has ever seen," said J.R. Cunningham, Nuspire Chief Security Officer. "The sophistication of these attacks, and the scope of what's being attacked just shows that ransomware isn't going anywhere. Ransomware groups continue to become more sophisticated in their attack methods, which is why organizations need to ensure they have the proper controls in place."

Additional notable findings from Nuspire's 2021 Q2 Threat Landscape Report include:

Malware activity up 41.84% and continues to be driven by VBA Agent Activity and a new addition of JS/Valkyr activity
Botnet activity down -50% from Q1, which is likely a result from the impact of Emotet being removed from the space
-51% decrease in exploit activity from Q1, but beginning to trend back up into Q3 as well as a large increase in SSH Bruteforce activity that has not been seen before

Learn more about protecting your organization from increasing cyber threats and download Nuspire's 2021 Q2 Threat Landscape Report.

About Nuspire

Nuspire is a managed security services provider (MSSP), offering managed security services (MSS), managed detection and response (MDR), endpoint detection and response (EDR) that supports best in breed EDR solutions, and cybersecurity consulting services (CSC) that includes incident readiness and response, threat modeling, digital forensics, technology optimization, posture assessments and more. Our self-service, technology-agnostic platform, myNuspire, allows greater visibility into your entire security program. Powered by the self-healing always on Nuspire Cyber X Platform (CXP), myNuspire will help CISOs alleviate the pain associated with tech sprawl, provide intelligence driven recommendations, solve for alert fatigue and help their clients become more secure over time. Our deep bench of cybersecurity experts, award-winning threat intelligence and three 24×7 security operations centers (SOCs) detect, respond, and remediate advanced cyber threats. Our client base spans thousands of enterprises from midsized to large enterprises that span across multiple industries and geographic footprints. For more information, visit www.nuspire.com and follow us at on LinkedIn @Nuspire.

SOURCE Nuspire