Trends

A couple of useful reports provide an overview of the key threats facing individuals and organisations. The key one is Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report which is widely regarded as the leading cybersecurity study in a crowded field. Its main findings include;

- Ransomware remains a fast-growing threat and accounted for 25% of observed security incidents in the year to October 31, 2021, and was present in 70% of all malicious software infections.

- 82% of security breaches involved the "human element" due to stolen credentials, phishing, misuse, or error.

- About 93% of all breaches were financially motivated, and about 6 percent were clearly for espionage purposes. For the most part, hacktivism is an afterthought (though the war in Ukraine may change that).

- Supply chains were responsible for roughly 62% of security incidents last year and are a growing target for bad actors, including groups that are more focussed on espionage than financial gain. For an example of a 'supply chain attack, go no further than 'Solar Winds').
Write-ups: The Register, The Record, ThreatPost

And one other finding, this time from Kroll's Threat Landscape report. Its analysis of threat activity for the first quarter of this year emphasises the importance of protecting email accounts. It says it observed a 54% increase in phishing attacks being used for initial access in comparison with the previous 3 months. Email compromise and ransomware were the two most common threat incident types, again highlighting the integral part played by end users in the intrusion lifecycle.