One ransomware family, Cerber, now boasts almost 90 percent of ransomware distribution, according to a Malwarebytes report.
The report, titled Cybercrime Tactics & Techniques, details ransomware and malware trends that occurred during the first quarter of 2017.
Here are five things to know about cyberthreat trends in Q1.
1. In 2016, the Locky and Cerber were the top two ransomware families, with Locky leading the market by a small margin.
2. Cerber ended Q1 2017 having distributed 90 percent ransomware in the market. By contrast, Locky began the year with almost 70 percent of the distribution, dropping to less than 2 percent by March.
3. Malwarebytes partially attributes the decrease in Locky ransomware to the Necurs botnet, a network of malware-infected devices. The botnet previously used Locky ransomware to infect devices, however, it has since moved to different spam distributors.
4. New ransomware families like Spora and Sage have also entered the ransomware market. However, Malwarebytes hypothesizes neither of these new arrivals will experience significant distribution in Q2.
5. In Q2 2017, Malwarebytes expects Cerber to continue to dominate the ransomware market.
"It is unlikely within the next quarter that any competitor will rise in market share enough to dethrone Cerber, barring something happening to the developers of Cerber and their ability to develop and distribute the ransomware," according to the report.
Click here to view the full report.