A new report on cyberthreats by Acronis revealed that 2021 will bring even more dangerous cybercrime activities as criminals shift their attacks from data encryption to data exfiltration.

Indeed, Ransomware keeps on being the leading threat, yet another cyberattack trend was discovered. Cybercriminals would now be trying to maximize their financial gain by stealing proprietary data before encrypting it and then threatening to publicly release it if the victims don’t pay.

The report stated that more than 1,000 companies were victims of these kinds of attacks in 2020, and it is expected that the trend will only increase in the coming year. Overtaking encryption is becoming the criminals’ primary tactic.

Hackers are adjusting extremely quickly to the new It landscape and are then more dangerous than ever.

It is very likely that attacks against remote workers will increase in 2021 since the defenses for systems outside of the corporate network are more vulnerable. Moreover, Ransomware will start looking for new victims, as it is becoming more automated. The ransomware attackers will focus on targets that provide a bigger profit, such as stealing data from companies. Hence, cloud environments and organizations will become more valued targets.

Therefore, there is a need to come up with new solutions to respond to these ever-evolving threats. If attackers continue to use automation, the number of malware samples will continue to rise, and organizations will need to find new approaches to protect themselves.