There is a widespread perception that cyber threats are a problem only for billion-dollar companies. However, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are also at risk due to fewer security measures. Despite their best efforts, organizations experienced more cyberattacks in 2021 than they did the year before. Many malware attacks go undetected by security solutions for weeks or even months. Per NCC Group’s 2021 report, cyberattacks increased by 93% in 2020. However, according to the NCC Group, the number of attacks declined by 37% in January 2022. This article at ZDNet by Tom Foremski speaks about the decline of ransomware and the rise of new cybersecurity threats.
NCC Group’s Latest on New Cybersecurity Threats
86% of ransomware attacks were in Europe and North America in 2021. The industrial sector is the hardest hit, followed by the consumer sector at 22%. NCC believes the decrease occurred in previous years and is probably due to seasonal factors. The number of victims in January was 121, down from 191 in December. NCC said that the major ransomware packages like LockBit 2.0 remain widely used for cyberattacks compared to Conti. In January 2022, NightSky emerged as a new threat actor rendering dual ransomware attacks by encrypting files and threatening to leak victims’ data on the dark web.
Matt Hull, global lead for strategic threat intelligence at NCC Group, said: “Highly targeted sectors should ensure that they have adequate ransomware mitigations in place. The partial dip in activity from groups such as Conti should not be inferred as a decreased threat, as it’s likely that its activity will increase in proportion with its peers in the coming months.”
Bolster Your Security Position
You should focus on cybersecurity expenditures like security services, infrastructure, network security equipment, network segmentation, identity access management, and consumer security software. Protecting against cyberattacks typically involves multiple layers of defense.
To read the original article, click on https://www.zdnet.com/article/report-ransomware-attacks-fall-but-new-threats-appear/
