BankInfoSecurity Compliance March 29, 2021 Compliance March 29, 2021 March 31, 2021 DougOlenick) • December 31, 2020 Get Permission Ransomware gangs entered 2020 with a full and dangerous set of weapons at their disposal and then rolled out additional tools such as extortion and new distribution methods, a trend that is expected to continue into 2021. Double extortion; Trickbot and Emotet to deliver ransomware. "[This year] will be even worse. Ransomware attacks will keep trending up until secure cloud architecture is widely adopted," says Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. So, what stood out to cybersecurity pros in 2020? Topping the list was the widespread use of extortion to force ransom payments and the associated quick rise and then retirement of the Maze ransomware gang. Secondly, COVID-19 forced a massive shift to a work-from-home environment, creating more opportunities for attackers and exposing healthcare facilities to even more attacks. Finally, there was a huge increase in ransomware-as-a-service.