Threat analysts suspect that 2022 is the year that threat actors shift their focus from organizations to consumers. This prediction has been made based on several factors that make consumers a better choice for attackers. ReasonLabs’ report on the same highlights the factors stated below.

Diving into details

  • Commercial ransomware - Last year, ransomware actors put a humongous effort in targeting large enterprises with the aim of garnering large ransom amounts. However, as the security posture of organizations has improved, threat actors are expected to target consumers. Some of these ransomware families include WannaCry, GandCrab, LockBit, and Cerber.
  • Adware - This is a steady source of revenue for attackers who primarily infect consumer smartphones and computers. The firm anticipates that clickers and ad-injectors will witness a surge this year as they can easily propagate with minimum detection.
  • Phishing - Phishing was a common threat against consumers even in 2021. As organizations invest considerable sums into securing on-premises systems, the best way for attackers to gain access to corporate networks is by targeting remote employees. The hackers employ phishing or social engineering to take over victims’ accounts and log into the organization’s network.
  • Trojan - While trojans are composed of a wide variety of malware, all have the same thing in common - evade detection and mask the attacker’s goal. Infostealers, cryptominers, backdoors, and spyware, among others, fall under this category. Banking trojans have recently gained a tremendous amount of popularity among cybercriminals.

Why target consumers?

In comparison to organizations, consumers are less secure, have fewer resources, and sometimes miss having a reliable antivirus solution. ReasonLabs predicts that attackers will target the most vulnerable consumers, such as teens and tweens, who are highly connected and use cryptocurrency.

The bottom line

As attack surfaces have expanded, organizations have secured their defenses due to an unreasonably high number of cyberattacks since the COVID-19 pandemic set in. This has made it slightly harder for attackers to target these companies. Nevertheless, consumers come as the low-hanging fruit and hence, threat actors will most probably shift their focus back toward targeting consumers to get to large corporations. Hence, this is the time to start implementing strong security measures to decrease the probability of such infections.

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