Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro stated that it found 10% increase in ransomware detections, despite a 57% decrease in the number of new ransomware families. In its Annual Threat Report 2019, the company stated that healthcare sector remained the most targeted industry, with more than 700 providers affected in 2019. According to the report, nearly 110 state and municipal governments and agencies in the U.S. fell victim to ransomware last year.
Trend Micro also highlighted that it disclosed 171% more high severity vulnerabilities than in 2018. In order to defend against threat landscape, The firm also suggested enterprises to adopt connected threat defense across gateways, networks, servers, and endpoints. Additionally, it also suggested few security practices to enhance company’s security posture:
- Mitigate ransomware with network segmentation, regular back-ups and continuous network monitoring
- Update and patch systems and software to protect against known vulnerabilities
- Enable virtual patching, especially for operating systems that are no longer supported by the vendor
- Implement multi-factor authentication and least privilege access policies to prevent abuse of tools that can be accessed via admin credentials, like remote desktop protocol, PowerShell and developer tools
Jon Clay, director of global threat communications for Trend Micro, said, “Digital transformation has been a business buzzword for decades, and the concept has yielded very positive results over time. But security is often an afterthought, which leaves digital doors wide open for cybercriminals. Despite the prevalent ideals of digital transformation, lack of basic security hygiene, legacy systems with outdated operating systems and unpatched vulnerabilities are still a reality. This scenario is ideal for ransomware actors looking for a quick return on investment. As long as the ransom scheme continues to be profitable, criminals will continue to leverage it.”
