Mandiant Threat Intelligence assesses with high confidence that the ransomware threat and its associated disruptions and costs will continue to grow in 2021. We assess with high confidence that cyber risks to the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and related industries will remain elevated throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and related vaccine distribution efforts.
We assess with high confidence that actors specializing in specific stages of the attack lifecycle will continue their activities, making sophisticated tactics more accessible to a wider variety of actors and threat activity more difficult to track. We also noted increased volume, sophistication, and diversity in information operations throughout 2020. We suggest that continued evolution will be at least partially driven by detection efforts.