Nearly daily we see new stories of cybercriminals breaching security walls, stealing valuable data, and then holding it hostage in return for money. Companies risk exposing valued customer data as well as their own reputations, placing their credibility in disarray.
HP threat intel team reveals rising web browser exploits, RAT-infested delivery alerts, DOSfuscation and other hacker activity
March 17, 2021
HP Inc. released its new Quarterly Threat Insights Report, providing analysis of real-world attacks against customers worldwide. The report found that 29% of malware captured was previously unknown* – due to the widespread use of packers and obfuscation techniques by attackers seeking to evade detection. 88% of malware was delivered by email into users’ inboxes, in many cases having bypassed gateway filters. It took 8.8 days, on average, for threats to become known by hash to antivirus engines – giving hackers over a week’s ‘head-start’ to further their campaigns.
The 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report goes inside the stories that headlined 2020, and takes a closer look at new and disruptive cyber threats to provide insight into the evolving cyber threat landscape. Major findings of the new in-depth SonicWall report include:
Although small businesses may not have the financial resources of larger enterprises, they do possess a trove of business and customer information that can net attackers a tidy profit either via ransomware or sale on the dark web. Understanding today’s threats—and how to defend against them—has grown increasingly critical for small businesses. Here are a few of the most common attack vectors that they should be prepared to face.
Ransomware can be delivered via several mechanisms, the most popular of which is often phishing. However, a new category called “Human-Operated“ Ransomware is now being used to execute multi-level attacks against company networks. Here’s how it works:
The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report for 2021 placed cybersecurity failure among the greatest threats facing humanity within the next ten years. Clearly, in this climate, and since many jumped into the world of cyber operations without adequate preparation, cybersecurity is now a critical priority.
Ransomware – a cyberattack in which attackers hijack computer systems and demand payment to release them – has skyrocketed from a relative rarity a few years ago to the single biggest type of cybercrime today. And there is no end in sight to its growth trajectory. Last year, 2,354 American government entities, healthcare organizations and schools were the victims of ransomware attacks. The average ransomware payout swelled to $178,000 in the first half of 2020, up from $112,000 a year ago, according to ransomware incident response firm Coveware, and few clandestine culprits were caught.
With additional pandemic-related vulnerabilities, these preventable mistakes led to greater losses, and the resulting breaches were often wholly avoidable with simple fixes. Here are four of the most common gaps in security, the high-profile breaches they caused in 2020, and how to prevent your company from becoming the next victim.
As a result of major cyberattacks in 2020, security leaders were forced to be even more cognizant of their approach to protecting their organization, often forcing them to refine and future proof their approaches to this new world of security. After watching the events of 2020 and analyzing threat actors’ approaches, here’s what I expect to see in 2021:
