While in existence prior to 2016, ransomware gained notoriety that year targeting the global healthcare industry, and in several instances, successfully extorting ransoms from victims. Since then, ransomware has turned out to be more than just a nuisance crime, with ransomware operators adjusting targeting strategies, malware deployment, and diversifying how they executed their campaigns to maintain success rates. Indeed, over the past few years, ransomware operators have shifted tactics, moving from widespread targeting intended to collect smaller ransoms from several entities to being more selective in what organizations are targeted and setting larger ransom amounts. One recent tactic revealed ransomware operators using virtual machine to evade detection, which was quickly adopted by other groups.
The number of ransomware operators appears to have dwindled as well with more organized and sophisticated groups such as Egregor (believed to be the new strain from former members of