Wiper malware, ransomware variants increase amid Russia-Ukraine war

More threat actors have used disk-wiping malware in cyberattacks since the beginning of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, with Ukrainian government, military, and private entities having been targeted with at least seven new major wiper variants, according to VentureBeat. Ransomware variants have also increased from 5,400 in the second half of 2021 to 10,666 in the first half of 2022, a report from Fortinet revealed. "Wiper malware trends reveal a disturbing evolution of more destructive and sophisticated attack techniques continuing with malicious software that destroys data by wiping it clean. This is an indicator that these weaponized payloads are not limited to one target or region, and will be used in other instances, campaigns, and targets," said Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs Chief Security Strategist and Vice President of Global Threat Intelligence Derek Manky. Manky added that the findings should prompt organizations to leverage threat assessments for exposure identification and endpoint security, adopt zero-trust network access controls, and bolster security awareness training.