SonicWall Cyber Threat report has confirmed that the year 2021 witnessed a record number of ransomware attacks in just 6 months, taking the number to 304.3 million; double than what was observed in the first six months of 2020.
The network protecting firm stated that the cyber criminals sped up the attacks on corporate networks and innocent WFH individuals, as the year, till date, was filled with uncertainty and anxiety over the global shutdowns because of the quick spread of Corona Virus Delta and Delta+ variants.
In order to sow discord and reap in financial gains, cyber crooks were found adopting sophisticated tactics to breach networks. Adding to this is the WFH trend that has exposed company networks to new variant of threats, as the employees are failing to follow basic cyber hygiene while fulfilling their online duties.
Therefore, SonicWall security experts are advising companies to adopt Boundless Cybersecurity approach that not helps them in defending against the known threats, but also secures their workforce from all kinds of security issues when they are on mobile.
Coming to the ransomware spread statistics, SonicWall observed that June 2021 alone witnessed over 78.4 million ransomware attacks. And most of those affected were from US and UK followed by some nations from Asia.
Among the recorded ransomware attacks, SonicWall Capture Labs observed that RYUK, Cerber and SamSam were the top 3 ransomware families that infected most computer networks in the West. And Florida, Idaho and New York were among the top 3 US cities most affected.
Meanwhile, as cryptocurrency prices remain high, those spreading Cryptojacking malware were also found making mere in the first 2Q of 2021.
SonicWall Threat Researchers found hackers launched over 51.1 million cryptojacking attempts in first six of this year, representing a 23% surge over the same period last year.
