2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report

Charting Cybercrime’s Shifting Frontlines

Cybercrime is continuously evolving, creating the ever-changing challenge of how you can defend yourself against these attacks.

Whilst industries like retail and finance have typically had fewer issues with cyberattacks in the past, the previous year has shown their attacks have risen dramatically. These drastic increases in cyberattacks demonstrate the vitality of cybersecurity across all industries.

With threat actors targeting anything and everything they can, being prepared for these attacks means more than just deploying the most advanced solutions. For protection now it is vital to develop comprehensive cybersecurity strategies based on the most current threat intelligence available.

The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report provides critical insights and actionable intelligence needed to safeguard your organization from new and emerging cyber threats. This bi-annual report includes key threat intelligence, trend analysis, and changes in cybercriminal tactics – all in one in-depth resource.

In this year’s report, learn how:
• Geopolitical and economic uncertainty are reshaping the threat landscape
• Threat actors are creating new revenue streams
• Education and financial sectors defend against increased attack volume
• Growing “attack-as-a-service” offerings create a cybercrime marketplace

2022 Global Attack Trends

2022 Key Findings

	Encrypted Attacks Encrypted attacks have fallen from 10.1 million to 7.3 million, creating a 28% drop overall. This is particularly apparent in retail with these attacks dropping 79%!
	Ransomware After the meteoric rise in ransomware attacks in 2021, 2022 showed a decrease with 493.3 million attacks. Despite the 21% decrease in attacks, the levels shown in this year are still far exceeding anything seen prior to 2021.
	Malware Fueled by the rates of 43% more cryptojacking and 87% more IoT malware, malware attacks have seen 2% increase. These sustained levels of malware are a sign that this is unlikely to be a temporary problem.
	Intrusions Intrusion attempts reached a new high of 6.3 trillion in the past year, a 19% increase on what has been seen previously. Whilst this seems high, the majority of this increase has been due to low-severity attacks, with malicious intrusion attempts actually falling by 10%.
	Cryptojacking A significant acceleration has begun since cybercriminals began adding low-profile revenue streams to their ransomware. With 139.3 million attempts recorded in 2022, there has been a huge 43% increase shown.
	IoT Malware IoT malware is continuing to increase at rapid rates with 112.3 million instances being recorded in 2021. These rates are growing at alarming rates since the first big jump of 218% in 2019.
	RTDMI Discoveries Hope is not yet lost! SonicWall’s Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection technology successfully identified and mitigated 465,501 never seen before malware variants in 2022. RTDMI is not only highly effective, but it can also learn, allowing it to become more effective over time.
	Malicious PDF and Office File 119,549 new PDF-based attacks have been logged, creating 35% increase in these types of attacks. These types of attacks can be particularly worrying due to their ability to blend in with legitimate files and go unnoticed.
	Phishing Thanks to a large drop in pandemic-related phishing, there has been a 17% decrease in phishing globally. Don’t let your guard down too quickly though, as attackers seem to be quickly changing tactics with finance, mortgage, and health-related phishing schemes.

Download the full version of the 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report for a look at why threats are rising, which areas are being hardest hit, and how you can protect yourself.

TZ ‘3 & Free’ Upgrade

The Gen 7 TZ series provides award-winning and third-party certified security efficacy, perfect for small to mid-sized businesses or distributed enterprises with SD-branch locations. Not only do SonicWall’s solutions provide you with flexibility, ease of use, and innovative technologies, but their threat protection also represents the best values in the industry.

What’s included:

• Free hardware when upgrading to the latest SonicWall Gen & TZ firewalls with APSS.
• Anti-virus protection.
• Content filtering.
• NSM Essential.
• Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI).

What you get:
Advanced Protection Service Suite (APSS) includes:

• Capture Advanced Threat Protection.
• Gateway Anti-Virus
• Anti-Spyware.
• Application Firewall Service.
• Intrusion Prevention.
• Content Filtering Services.
• Comprehensive Anti-Spam.
• NSM Essential with Management & 7-Day Reporting and 24×7 Support with firmware.

Call us on 0800 488 0000 to learn more

 

This is just a brief look at the SonicWall Range, if you require more SonicWall equipment for your business, you can check our SonicWall microsite for a wide range of SonicWall products to suit your needs.

 

More Cisco Products Available from Comms Express:

SonicWall SMBs & Branches | SonicWall Next Generation Firewall | SonicWall Virtual Firewall | SonicWall Access Point | SonicWall Switches | SonicWall Secure Remote Access | SonicWall Wireless Security | SonicWall Capture Security Appliance (CSa) | SonicWall Access Points | SonicWall Accessories

 

If you require any further information on these or any other products that we stock here at Comms Express, please do not hesitate to contact our team who will be only too happy to help.

Until next time…