2021-10-31 - 09:21

What the Acronis Cyber Threats Report - 2020 tell us?

Acronis has three research centers to monitor and investigate cybersecurity incidents around the world. It publishes the total data and events of this year in a report every year, so let's see what this report tells us for 2020.

Top 5 numbers in 2020:

• 31% of global companies have faced cyber-attacks at least once a day.
• "Maze" ransomware was responsible for 50 percent of the ransomware attack cases that were recorded. 
• More than 1,000 company’s data have been leaked and have been published since they were infected with Ransomware. 
• Microsoft has patched 1,000 security gaps in its products in just nine months. 
• The average age of each malware was 3.4 days. 

1. New fraud techniques appeared by Covid-19: After the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, people were collecting information online about how to protect themselves and read the latest news, and cybercriminals undoubtedly took advantage of this opportunity and used new scams and tricks to get important and secret information about their victims. especially using phishing techniques using fake-free test and fake financial support

2- Remote workers are under attack: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the threat landscape, highlighting numerous security and privacy risks associated with remote work operations – including remote access to internal company servers, virtual conferencing, and security training among employees. a number of obstacles and risks arise in front of the IT team of companies in moving their work environment to a remote environment or a hybrid environment.

• Nearly half of all IT managers struggled to instruct and secure remote workers.
• 31% of global companies are attacked by cybercriminals at least once a day. The most common attack types were phishing attempts, DDoS attacks, and videoconferencing attacks.
• 92% of global organizations had to adopt new technologies to complete the switch to remote work. As a result, 72% of global organizations saw their IT costs increase during the pandemic.
• Successful attacks remain frequent, despite increased tech spending, because organizations aren’t prioritizing defensive capabilities properly.
• 39% of all companies reported video conferencing attacks during the pandemic.

3. Ransomware is still the number one threat: it is clear that 2020 was The Year of Ransomware, the number of attacks increased, techniques increased, and the number of victims increased.

4. Simple backup and security are not enough anymore: since 2016, ransomwares have been attacking backups. cybersecurity experts have been advising people and companies not to pay the ransom when their files are encrypted by ransomware instead of that, they should back up their data and systems because if there is a backup, you don't have to pay to return your data. But since 2016, many ransomware have also attacked the backups, and they can stop old model backup programs, as they are unable to protect themselves.

If we take "Conti " ransomware as an example, the average request for this ransomware is less than $100,000, using Windows Restart Manager to close any open or unsaved files before encrypting. It will also delete all hidden backup copies stored on this COMPUTER, as well as stop all services associated with antivirus, SQL, cybersecurity, backup programs such as Veeam and BackupExec.