IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2018 reports a 25% drop in breached records in 2017.
It’s suggested in the report that it could be due to a focus on ransomware as opposed to data theft.
‘Instead of compromising data in large quantities, attackers instead regularly locked down access to data, demanding ransom payments from the data owners,’ the report explains.
Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, gives his thoughts on the report and raises concerns that users still pose a big potential problem for companies if not properly educated.
“It’s no surprise to me that ransomware attacks are on the rise.
“Often cyber-attacks are based on their probability to succeed and reap rewards: ransomware has proven time and again that it works.
“It’s also no surprise that human error and mistakes in infrastructure configurations are on the rise. The ability to utilise these “holes” in the security enable vulnerabilities and exploits to be utilised to gain control or access.
“It is still concerning that phishing led attacks, including users clicking links, are still a major concern and causing more damage than traditional data breaches.
“Malware attacks, misconfigurations and user driven attacks are going to continue to cause companies problems despite the emphasis being on patching and updating operating systems and applications.
“So many companies have to outsource so many services that it becomes very difficult to have complete control over the security of our data when it’s being stored on someone else’s servers.”
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