Prevalence of Cryptomining Malware Doubled to 28%, Impacting More Than 1 in 4 Organizations
Fortinet announced the findings of its latest Global Threat Landscape Report. The research reveals cybercriminals are evolving their attack methods to increase their success rates and to accelerate infections. While ransomware continues to impact organizations in destructive ways, there are indications that some cybercriminals now prefer hijacking systems and using them for cryptomining rather than holding them for ransom. Highlights of the report follow:
Cybercrime Attack Methods Evolve to Ensure Success at Speed and Scale
Data indicates that cybercriminals are getting better and more sophisticated in their use of malware and leveraging newly announced zero-day vulnerabilities to attack at speed and scale. While the number of exploit detections per firm dropped by 13% in Q1 of 2018, the number of unique exploit detections grew by over 11%, and73% of companies experienced a severe exploit.
Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet said, “We face a troubling convergence of trends across the cybersecurity landscape. Malicious cyber actors are demonstrating their efficiency and agility by exploiting the expanding digital attack surface, taking advantage of newly announced zero-day threats, and maximizing the accessibility of malware for bad intent. In addition, IT and OT teams often don’t have the resources necessary to keep systems appropriately hardened or protected. However, implementing a security fabric which prioritizes speed, integration, advanced analytics, and risk-based decision making can enable comprehensive protection at machine speed and scale.”
Fighting Evolving Cybercrime Requires Integrated Security
The threat data in this quarter’s report reinforces many of the predictiontrends unveiled by the Fortinet FortiGuard Labs global research team for 2018demonstrating that the best defense against intelligent and automated threats is an integrated, broad, and automated security fabric. A highly aware and proactive security defense system is needed to keep pace with the next generation of automated and AI-based attacks.
