Enterprises worldwide are currently facing a new wave of cyber-attacks that are heavily influenced by geopolitical tensions, as highlighted in Carbon Black’s 2019 Global Threat Report. Last year, cybersecurity professionals found themselves grappling with a surge in crypto-mining attacks, fileless attacks, ransomware, and commodity malware, signaling the dawn of a new era in cyber threats.
The report pointed out that modern cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with attackers utilizing techniques like lateral movement, island hopping, and counter incident response to evade detection. Data analysis revealed that enterprises encountered around one million attempted cyber-attacks daily, with half of these attacks involving the victim being used primarily for island hopping.
Governments worldwide were targeted by increased attacks linked to Russia, China, and North Korea. The FBI identified variants of the Graftor malware as the fileless payload used in these attacks, with high confidence that they are employed by North Korean cyber operations (also known as HIDDEN COBRA) to maintain a presence on victim networks and exploit them further.
The report also highlighted the top five industries targeted by cyber-attacks in 2018, including computers/electronics, healthcare, business services, internet/software, and manufacturing. Kryptic emerged as the most prevalent ransomware variant, with manufacturing, business services, retail, government, and computers/electronics being the industries most frequently targeted.
Furthermore, the data showed that the average endpoint faced two cyber-attacks per month in 2018. This translates to an organization with 10,000 endpoints encountering over 660 attempted cyber-attacks daily. Additionally, approximately $1.8 billion in cryptocurrency-related thefts occurred last year, marking a significant increase from the $1.3 billion reported by the FBI in 2016. Cyber-criminals have shifted their focus from Bitcoin to Monero as their preferred currency.
Cryptocurrency exchanges were identified as the most vulnerable targets for cybercriminals, accounting for over 27% of reported incidents. These exchanges are prime targets for cryptocurrency theft, fraud, and the harvesting of user information for subsequent targeting by these criminals.
In conclusion, the cybersecurity landscape is evolving rapidly, with cyber-attacks becoming more sophisticated and widespread. It is crucial for organizations to stay vigilant and adopt robust security measures to safeguard against these ever-evolving threats.