Over 40 million attacks on web applications were detected and addressed in SonicWall‘s 2020 Annual Threat Report.
While attacks on web apps such as Slack and DropBox are increasing, so are encrypted threats, and those targeting IoT devices, albeit by lower percentages (27% and 5% respectively).
Also being targeted frequently within the past year were governmental and healthcare bodies, due to the masses of sensitive information that they possess.
State, provincial and local government infrastructures in particular had their email communications, phone lines, websites and dispatch services taken down within the last year.
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Because attacks are becoming more targeted and the traditional ‘spray-and-pray’ tactic is starting to be abandoned, the volume of malware and ransomware attacks have dropped by 6% and 9% respectively.
“Cyber criminals are honing their ability to design, author and deploy stealth-like attacks with increasing precision, while growing their capabilities to evade detection by sandbox technology,” said SonicWall president and CEO Bill Conner.
“Now more than ever, it’s imperative that organisations detect and respond quickly, or run the risk of having to negotiate what’s being held at ransom from criminals so embolden they’re now negotiating the terms.”
On the other hand, cryptojacking took a tumble during the second half of 2019, with the success rate of attacks on the cryptocurrency market falling to 78%, a main factor of which is believed to be the downfall of mining service Coinhive.
The 2020 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report was carried out across 215 countries and territories, and examined 1.1 million sensors.
