Page 132 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2022

Understanding The True Financial Risk of Ransomware

Attacks

By Mark Guntrip, Senior Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Menlo Security

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) recently defined today’s threat landscape as the
"golden era of ransomware”. Ransomware has become one of the biggest cybersecurity threats facing
organizations today in any industry and any market – and unfortunately, it is only likely to get worse.

According to research that Menlo Security recently undertook, a third of organizations (500+ in the US
and UK) said they experience ransomware attacks at least once a week, with 9% experiencing them
daily. Over half (53%) of respondents to our survey admitted that their company has been the victim of a
ransomware attack in the last 18 months.

The shift to remote and hybrid working models has expanded the attack surface, opening up a host of
new vulnerabilities, attack vectors and entry points into the corporate network.

Combined with this is the development by attackers of new and ever more sophisticated techniques. We
have seen a surge in attacks known as Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT), designed to bypass
detection from traditional security tools like sandbox analysis and phishing detection solutions.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2022 Edition 132
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