Criminals release fewer new types of malware last year, double down on ransomware

Cybercriminals have been producing fewer new kinds of malware last year — but that’s because they’re so busy raking in the money from their ransomware attacks.

The number of unique malware samples discovered last year was 60 million, down 6.25 percent from last year’s 64 million, according to a report released this morning by SonicWall.

“This is the first time I’ve seen that the number of unique malware samples actually decreased,” said Dmitriy Ayrapetov, director of product management at SonicWall, which produced the report, based on data collections from more than a million sensors.

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