Acronis announced the update of Acronis report on digital threats 2021, which provides insight into digital threat trends monitored by company experts. Released on the occasion of the Black Hat 2021 event, of which Acronis is a Diamond sponsor, the report indicates that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly at risk of attack, according to trends observed in the first six months. of the year.
According to the report, in the first half of 2021, four out of five organizations faced a cybersecurity threat that exploited a vulnerability in their ecosystem. from third-party vendors. This is at a time when the average cost of a data breach soared to around $ 3.56 million, while the average ransomware ransom payment soared 33% to over $ 100,000.
These figures would represent a serious financial blow for any organization, but would spell the end of most SMBs, which Acronis says will be the focus of hackers in the second half of 2021.
By launching attacks on the Managed Service Provider (MSP) supply chain, hackers gain access to both the activities of the MSP and those of all of their customers.. As seen with the SolarWinds breach last year and the attack on Kaseya VSA in early 2021, a successful attack can result in the breach of hundreds or thousands of SMEs at the bottom links of the business chain. supply. .
Phishing attacks are on the rise
As a result of using social engineering techniques to trick users into clicking malicious attachments or links, phishing emails increased 62% between the first and second quarters of the year. This spike is of particular concern as 94% of malware is introduced via email.
During the same period, Acronis has blocked more than 393,000 malicious and phishing URLs for its customers, preventing hackers from accessing valuable data and introducing malware into customer systems.
In 2020, Over 1,300 ransomware victims had their data publicly disclosed after the attack, as hackers try to maximize the economic gain they can derive from successful attacks. In the first half of 2021, more than 1,100 data breaches have already been detected, which could represent an increase of 70% by the end of the year.
Teleworkers remain a privileged target
The need to use teleworkers continues in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Two-thirds of remote workers now use corporate devices for personal activities and personal devices for work.
As a result, hackers are actively studying remote workers. Acronis has seen a more than double increase in cyber attacks globally, with a 300% increase in brute force attacks on remote systems via RDP.
The biannual edition of the Acronis 2021 report on digital threats is based on a review of attack and threat data collected by Acronis’ global network of CPOC centers, who monitor and investigate digital threats 24/7.
Malware data has been collected from over 250,000 individual endpoints around the world using Acronis Cyber Protect (either as customers of an MSP running Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud or as companies running Acronis Cyber Protect 15). The mid-year update covers endpoint attacks detected between January and June 2021.
Comprehensive report provides detailed information on key security trends and threats observed by CPOC centers in the first half of 2021, reviews the most dangerous malware families, associated statistics and ransomware groups, identifies the vulnerabilities that made the most successful attacks possible and proposes Acronis recommendations for the remainder of 2021 and beyond.