We are currently in a remote work scenario of epic proportions. There are countless entities across the globe that have gone fully remote as a result of the limitations imposed by Covid-19.
As if the challenge of a global and highly contagious pandemic was not enough, there has been a further spike in ransomware attacks during the crucial third quarter of year 2020. This trend further underscores the need for security and contextual awareness.
We call the third quarter of 2020 a crucial one for a host of reasons. Firstly, many enterprises that had previously considered the ongoing remote work as just a temporary phase were proven wrong. So, they were now adjusting to the new norm.
Secondly and more importantly, organizations across the globe were in a transition process from makeshift remote work platforms to fully secure and federated Cloud powered solutions such as dinCloud Hosted Workspaces.
This presented a “window of opportunity” for cyber criminals who sadly, wanted to exploit even a global health crisis in the form of Covid-19. Even before the pandemic struck, ransomware was increasingly becoming an attack vector globally.
Stats around Ransomware Attacks
“Positive Technologies”, a company that specializes in threat assessment and cyber security solutions, recently released a report titled “Cybersecurity Threatscape: Q3 2020. The report monitors the trend of cyber attacks in general and ransomware in particular.
According to the report, 51% of all malware attacks mounted during the third quarter of 2020 were malware. This figure stood at 39% during the second quarter of 2020. This marks a quarterly surge of 12%, which is quite disturbing.
Hacking on the other hand, an attack vector most of us are well acquainted with, accounted for only 30% of all the cyber attacks launched during Q3 of 2020. This reduction marks a shift in the tactics being employed by cyber miscreants.
Shift from Social Engineering Tactics
Attackers are now moving away from social engineering tactics. In the context of cyber security, social engineering is the manipulation of people over the web. Its done in a way that they are tricked into performing some harmful action that “helps” an attacker.
Ironically, most social engineering attacks were crafted around the Covid-19 pandemic. As people become more accustomed to this crisis and the level of awareness rises, most social engineering attacks are just not delivering the nefarious outcomes for attackers.
During the second quarter of 2020, the use of Covid-19 related content in social engineering attacks was recorded at 16% of all attacks. It is an encouraging sign that this figure has fell to a mere 4% in the third quarter of 2020.
At one stage, entire organizations were being targeted by social engineering attacks. This trend has declined even further during Q3 of 2020 to around 45%. In the first quarter of 2020, the same figure stood at around 67% of all attempted attacks.
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How to Safeguard Yourself from Ransomware?
As remote work evolves further and ransomware attacks surge to record highs, you surely need a security solution that encompasses all critical components of your IT infrastructure. The stakes for security rise even further when we talk of cloud based services.
dinCloud Offers Integrated Sophos Intercept X
Leading Cloud Service Provider (CSP) dinCloud is proactively involved in making its cloud infrastructure and services as much secure as possible. In yet another security related milestone, dinCloud is now offering a world class solution by Sophos.
To further augment its security profile, dinCloud is now also offering Sophos Intercept X for endpoints as well as servers to its valued cloud users. This is a solution that not only protects against ransomware, but a host of other threat vectors as well.
Recent ransomware attacks have exposed a major weak link in legacy systems, which is the endpoint devices being used by your employees to access data or apps. It is right here that the perpetrator mostly tends to gain access.
Also Read: How Should CFOs Perceive Cloud Powered Technologies?
Conclusion
The surge in ransomware attacks further necessitates a holistic approach to cyber security and Sophos Intercept X for endpoints as well as servers is a welcome addition. Investing in ransomware protection is way better than paying ransom to a cyber criminal.
You may Contact Us for any further information about our best in class solutions, whether its security, performance or productivity.
