Rebranded Ransomware Crews Spike Number of Hijacking Incidents in Q4 2022

January 26, 2023 – Published on MSSP Alert

Ransomware activity increased sequentially in Q4 2022, as rebranded ransomware groups increased the number of publicly claimed victims, GuidePoint Security said in its new 2022 Ransomware Report.

The Herndon, Virginia-based security provider’s analysis is based on data obtained from publicly available resources and includes information from the threat groups. The company said its researchers built a new taxonomy that provides for closer looks into how ransomware groups progress in their operational maturity and the ability to classify and identify potential rebranding activity.

During 2022, GuidePoint said it tracked 2,507 publicly posted victims across 54 threat groups and 40 industry verticals. As Drew Schmitt, GuidePoint’s research lead analyst, explained:

“Based on the trends over the last year, we expect to see an increase in ransomware rebranding. Vulnerabilities, emerging technologies and personal devices will continue to be heavily researched and utilized for initial intrusion into networks, with the time to weaponize vulnerabilities likely decreasing as the year progresses. Additionally, as organizations make gains in improving their security posture, we believe that ransomware groups will shift to single extortion attempts based on data exfiltration where no encryption event occurs.”

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