2020 was challenging for everyone: companies, regulators, individuals. Due to the limitations imposed by the epidemiological situation, particular categories of users and businesses were increasingly targeted by cybercriminals. While we were adjusting to remote work and the rest of the new conditions, so were scammers. As a result, 2020 was extremely eventful in terms of digital threats, in particular those faced by financial institutions.
At the same time, some of the known APT (Advanced persistent threats) groups that are not generally targeting financial institutions have tried their hand at it. Existing at a special crossroads between APT and financial crime, the Lazarus group has already been among the most active ones in the financial sphere. In 2020, the group tried its hand at the big extortion game with the VHD ransomware family. Later on other groups, such as MuddyWater, followed suit.
Moreover, in 2020, we saw regional actors go global. A few Brazilian malware families expanded their operations to other continents, targeting victims in Europe and Asia. We have dubbed the first four families to have done this (Guildma, Javali, Melcoz, Grandoreiro) “the Tétrade”. Later on the authors of Guildma also created the new banking malware Ghimob targeting users located in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Germany, Angola, and Mozambique.
Of course, the known financial threats have remained, too. Thus, the year 2020 saw a surge in the use of Emotet, financial cyberthreats
