The Near and Far Future of Today’s Ransomware Groups

This Trend Micro Research paper reviews ransomware's history, current ecosystem (RaaS, initial-access brokers, exfiltration + double extortion), actor typologies (big-game hunters, automated operators, nation-state overlaps), and identifies triggers (law enforcement pressure, crypto regulation, sanctions, cloud adoption, OpSec failures) that could drive gradual evolutions or radical pivots into data monetization, crypto theft, BEC, supply‑chain attacks, or stock manipulation; it recommends shifting defenses left in the kill chain and prioritizing disruption of initial-access and laundering/enabling services.