Trend Micro cloud-based email security blocked 33,6 million attacks last year. As a result, email threats increased by over 100 percent year-on-year, remaining the top threat of attack facing organizations.
Trend Micro, one of the world's leading providers of cybersecurity solutions, was able to block over 2021 million email threats in cloud-based systems in 33,6. Overall, there was an increase of over 100 percent compared to the previous year. The strong increase in attacks shows that e-mails are still the main gateway for cyber attacks.
Real data evaluated
This data was collected throughout 2021 from security products that complement native protection in collaboration platforms such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
On a positive note, ransomware detections are down 43 percent year-over-year. This could be due to the fact that attackers are taking more and more targeted action against selected companies and are sending fewer spam messages to large numbers of recipients. In addition, cybercriminals are increasingly using phishing to first establish access to their victims' company network without immediately encrypting or stealing their data. Rather, these accesses are then sold as "Access-as-a-Service" offers in the digital underground. Also, the increasingly better blocking of certain ransomware affiliate tools by security solutions already at the email gateway can contribute to the development.
Business Email Compromise – BCE Rises
The number of business email compromise (BEC) threats identified also decreased by 11 percent compared to the previous year. In contrast, BEC attacks detected with Trend Micro's AI-powered writing style analysis have increased by 83 percent - a sign that fraud attempts are becoming more sophisticated.
🔎 Cloud App Security Threat Report (Image: Trend Micro).
Further results of the study
- Employees in hybrid work models continue to be a popular target group: 16,5 million identified and blocked phishing attacks represent an increase of 138 percent.
- Phishing is still the main means of attack: 6,3 million phishing attacks on access data (credential phishing) show an increase of 15 percent.
- Increase in both known and unknown malware: 3,3 million malicious files detected, including a 134 percent increase in known malware and a 221 percent increase in unknown malware.
“No matter how much the behavior of attackers changes, e-mail remains the number one gateway, despite improved technology and employee training. The attackers are just more targeted and more personal in their approach to victims,” explains Richard Werner, Business Consultant at Trend Micro. "To effectively mitigate this risk, companies should choose a platform approach that consolidates information from different areas of the IT infrastructure and offers a complete package of detection, defense and countermeasures."
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About Trend Micro As one of the world's leading providers of IT security, Trend Micro helps create a secure world for digital data exchange. With over 30 years of security expertise, global threat research, and constant innovation, Trend Micro offers protection for businesses, government agencies, and consumers. Thanks to our XGen™ security strategy, our solutions benefit from a cross-generational combination of defense techniques optimized for leading-edge environments. Networked threat information enables better and faster protection. Optimized for cloud workloads, endpoints, email, the IIoT and networks, our connected solutions provide centralized visibility across the entire enterprise for faster threat detection and response.