Ransomware incidents have increased dramatically over the past few years. Complaints about ransomware attacks to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center surged 62% in the first half of 2021 compared to a similar time frame in 2020, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. To blunt this growing threat, security professionals need to understand the actors behind ransomware threats, how they operate and how they continuously find new victims to target.

Closer analysis of high-profile ransomware campaigns like REvil and Thanos shows that organized partnerships between ransomware operators and affiliates, each playing to their strengths, help execute cybercrimes at scale and for maximum payout.