Acronis‘ latest cyber threats report predicts 2021 will be the “year of extortion” as criminals pivot their attacks from data encryption to data exfiltration.

The 2020 Acronis Cyber Threats Report examines attack and threat data collected by the company’s global network of Acronis Cyber Protection Operations Centers (CPOCs). They continuously monitor and research cyber threats.

Candid Wüest is vice president of cyber protection research at Acronis and co-author of the report. He said the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for some attack techniques.

Acronis’ Candid Wüest

“The trends highlight the challenges with the hasty move to the cloud of many organization and the flood of new cyberattacks increasing every month,” he said. “Although this is not specific to MSSPs, it will definitely be they who can have a big impact in protecting their customers.”

Ransomware continues to be the leading threat, according to Acronis. Maze ransomware accounted for nearly half of all known cases in 2020.

The report shows a growing trend of cybercriminals trying to maximize their financial gain. Not content to collect ransoms to decrypt infected data, they steal proprietary – and sometimes embarrassing – data before encrypting it. They then threaten to publicly release the stolen files if the victim doesn’t pay up.

Acronis analysts found evidence that more than 1,000 companies globally had their data leaked following a ransomware attack in 2020. That trend is expected to accelerate in the coming year, overtaking encryption as the criminals’ primary tactic.

Unsettling Forecast

Among the other notable findings in the report:

“Companies need to have an overarching cyber protection strategy,” Wüest said. “They need to break down the silos and integrate the functions of data protection, endpoint security, etc., into one team in order to reduce complexity. This will help to combat the high frequency of attacks. Of course, companies also need to implement the best practices like patch management, strong authentication, and login and visibility inside across all data points. If they don’t have the knowledge or resources, then they should get help from external players such as MSSPs.”