SonicWall: Record-Breaking Year in Cybercrime

SonicWall‘s 2021 Cyber Threat Report paints a bleak picture of how cybercriminals took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic in every way possible to ensare victims.

During the height of the pandemic, the threat landscape reached a critical tipping point that will change cybersecurity forever, SolarWinds said.

Among key findings from the report:

●      This year’s ransomware has been a plague on businesses and municipalities as companies and governments have limited budgets and talent.

●      Cybercriminals are using more sophisticated types of cyberattacks like ransomware as a service. And they’re continuing to use dangerous variants like Ryuk.

●      U.S. hospitals, already on the front lines of fighting the pandemic, are now facing vial attacks by cybercriminals. This is the most significant cybersecurity threat ever seen in the United States.

●      Spikes in IoT malware will continue to grow exponentially as remote work continues.

Dmitriy Ayrapetov is vice president of platform architecture at SonicWall.

“The pandemic was a huge driver for how the findings of the 2021 report shaped up, having some impact on almost every part of the resulting data,” he said. “For instance, the new work-from-home reality brought about exponentially greater attack surfaces to introduce an untold number of new vectors and infinite opportunities for threat actors to strike. We also saw cybercriminals use the crisis to their advantage via phishing emails — such as fake shipping invoices or COVID-19 vaccine information — as a tool to spread malicious Microsoft Office files.”

Bad actors are targeting intellectual property such as vaccine distribution knowing that health care institutions don’t have the infrastructure or budget to defend against sophisticated threat vectors, Ayrapetov said.

“With vaccine and COVID-19 research still imperative in 2021, we predict that health care institutions will remain ripe for cybercrime,” he said.

A vital first step for companies to protect themselves is to educate employees, Ayrapetov said.

“By strengthening employees — the first line of defense — organizations can lower the chances of potentially irreparable consequences of cyberattacks and bolster their defenses against cybercrime,” he said. “Alongside this critical upskilling, companies must take initiative and examine their cybersecurity resiliency and hygiene in new ways — searching for solutions that can detect and prevent even the most advanced threats. Continuously improving and focusing on a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that works for your organization is never complete.”