SonicWall in its mid-year updated report provided details of the major cybersecurity threats of 2022, citing malware, ransomware, cryptojacking and other threats.
According to the survey, 66 per cent of respondents were statistically more concerned about cyberattacks this year than ever before, which is not surprising given the 2.8 billion malware hits were recorded in the first half of 2022.
The malware categories that have increased the most are cryptojacking malware (30 per cent increase) and Internet of Things-related (IoT) malware (77 per cent increase). North American attacks have increased by 2 per cent, which is well below the global average. Nevertheless, cyberattacks in Europe have increased by 29 per cent, while attacks in Asia have increased by 32 per cent. In terms of affected states in the United States, Florida remains the hardest hit, followed by California and New York.
Education appears to be the most targeted sector, with a monthly increase of 21.4 per cent, followed by government at 19.3 per cent and financial organizations at 15.2 per cent.
There has been a 23 per cent increase in ransomware attacks, with 236.1 million ransomware attempts reported in the first half of 2022, while the number of IoT malware increased by 77 per cent and exceeded 12 million detections between January and June 2022. Meanwhile, worldwide cryptojacking reached 66.7 million in the first half of 2022, an increase of 30 per cent compared to the first half of 2021.
According to the SonicWall report, such figures show the insecurity of the cyber threat landscape. Despite the fact that ransomware attacks in the U.S. have declined by 51 per cent compared to last year and in Germany by 46 per cent, other countries are recording a sharp increase in ransomware attacks.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechRepublic.