Once again, it’s time to examine the year’s biggest cyber threats and rank them to see which ones are in the running for Nastiest Malware of 2020. For the third year in a row, we’ve combed through the data, analyzed different behaviors, and determined which malicious payloads we think are the absolute worst.
As you might expect, COVID-19 related attacks have risen to the fore. For example, almost all the malspam phishing lures used by malware that we’ve seen are based on COVID-19. The most common lures refer to COVID safety guidelines and pretend to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) or the White House. We also saw lures using fake pandemic stimulus check info to trick unsuspecting victims.
While new examples of malware and cybercriminal tactics crop up each day, plenty of the same old players, such as ransomware, continue to dominate the scene. In fact, to maximize their chances of success, many criminals have begun to combine attack methods. A lot of the names you’ll see in this list can cooperate with one another in some way, so we’ll do our best to explain these ghoulish groupings and how they work.
Additional Resources:
- Get to know the Nastiest Malware of 2020
- Have a question? Ask Security Analyst, Tyler Moffitt, on Nov 2. during our LIVE Q&A
- Test your malware knowledge with our quiz
- Infographic (attached below)
- Have your say and VOTE for the Nastiest Malware of 2020
- Check out part 2 of our Nastiest Malware Q&A
- Take a look at our final Nastiest Malware Q&A
