While ransomware volume took a substantial dip, other malware attacks jumped significantly in 2017. All told, cybersecurity firm SonicWall logged 9.32 billion attacks — an 18.4 percent increase over 2016, as detailed in a new
“The cyber arms race affects every government, business, organization and individual. It cannot be won by any one of us,” said SonicWall CEO Bill Conner in a statement. “Our latest proprietary data and findings show a series of strategic attacks and countermeasures as the cyber arms race continues to escalate. By sharing actionable intelligence, we collectively improve our business and security postures against today’s most malicious threats and criminals.”
The annual threat report frames, compares and contrasts advances made by both cybersecurity professionals and global cybercriminals.
- Cyber attacks are becoming the No. 1 risk to business, brands, operations and financials
- 9.32 billion total malware attacks in 2017, an 18.4 percent year-over-year increase from 2016
- Ransomware attacks dropped from 638 million to 184 million between 2016 and 2017
- Ransomware variants, however, increased 101.2 percent
- Traffic encrypted by SSL/TLS standards increased 24 percent, representing 68 percent of total traffic
- Without SSL decryption capabilities in place, the average organization will see almost 900 attacks per year hidden by SSL/TLS encryption
- SonicWall identifies almost 500 new previously unknown malicious files each day
“The risks to business, privacy and related data grow by the day — so much so that cybersecurity is outranking some of the more traditional business risks and concerns,” said Conner.
