We are dwelling in a very hostile cybersecurity environment. There are many factors behind this trend, but the recently induced mass scale remote work appears to be a major cause. Recent stats gathered around cyberattacks have also confirmed this view.
In a bid to sustain mission-critical operations, many organizations scrambled for makeshift remote work solutions. This exposed such systems to a host of cyber threats and the perpetrators of such malicious attacks were quick to realize this.
A report was recently published by “Positive Technologies”, a company that specializes in cyber threat assessment. The report pointed towards a surge in ransomware attacks, particularly during the third quarter of the year 2020.
The research report cited that out of the total malware attacks launched during the third quarter of 2020, over 51% of those comprised of ransomware. This is a type of attack in which the victim’s entire data is encrypted by the perpetrator.
In order to regain access to your own data and decrypt it, if you’re lucky enough, you have to pay a ransom to the attacker. The most ironic part of ransomware attacks is that even once you’ve paid the ransom, you can never be fully certain of recovering your data.
During the second quarter of 2020, the ratio of ransomware attacks was 39% of all the malware attacks. This marks an increase of 12% in the third quarter of 2020, as compared to the second quarter of the same year.
In contrast to the rise in ransomware attacks, social engineering tactics were used lesser by attackers during the third quarter. One of the main reasons behind this shift was that people have become much more aware and vigilant about such tactics.
Ransomware and malware on the other hand, still remain elusive cyberattack vectors that continue to deliver “results” for cyber miscreants. To remain protected from modern-day cyber threats, you need to take a holistic approach to cybersecurity.
This is where an all-encompassing cybersecurity solution like Sophos Intercept X for Endpoints and Servers comes into play. At dinCloud, we offer this world-class security solution alongside our reliable and scalable cloud solutions for remote work.
