Cybercrime gangs are looking to rebuild with new tactics after global police operations this year made a huge dent in their activities, experts have told AFP.
The gangs have had a bad year so far, with law enforcement operations taking out some of prominent groups including LockBit, a loose network of largely Russian-speaking cyber criminals.
LockBit was one of the major developers of malicious software that allows criminals to lock victims out of their networks, steal their data and demand a ransom for its return.
Ransomware attacks using LockBit and other software have led to major disruption of governments, businesses and public services like hospitals.
Victims have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to gangs, usually in untraceable cryptocurrencies.
The disruption of LockBit in February and another network of malicious bots in May led to a «cleaning up» of the ransomware scene, said Nicolas Raiga-Clemenceau of the XMCO consultancy in France.
But he said «a number of new groups» had since appeared and started to organise themselves.
Allan Liska of US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future agreed and said there were worrying trends emerging with some of the new groups.
— 'Violence as service' -
Some of the newer gangs appeared