Feb 27, 2018

With the development of ransomware, evolutions in Malware and encrypted web traffic becoming a vulnerability, 2017 was a dangerous time to be online. With the release of Cisco’s 4^th annual Cybersecurity Report, it’s time to consider what might change in 2018.

The report attempts to shine a light on the techniques that are being used to elude defenses and evade detection, together with insights and recommendations to help organizations and users defend against such attacks.

As mentioned in Cisco’s blog on security, this year’s annual Cybersecurity report’s findings show a maturing, more sophisticated tradecraft by attackers. Case in point: adversaries are increasingly embracing encryption – meant to enhance security – to conceal command-and-control activity.

50 percent of global web traffic was encrypted as of October 2017, a 12 percent volume increase from November 2016. The threat research team also observed a more than threefold increase in encrypted network communication used by inspected malware samples during that time.

The evolution of ransomware was another significant threat development in 2017. There is no need for human interaction, in launching ransomware campaigns, anymore because of network-based ransomware worms. Attackers changed the game from pursuing ransom to the outright destruction of systems, data and operations. Point being: Security teams need to be aware and prepare; speed and mass affect are the goals.

To counter many of these challenges, the Cisco research team observes security teams increasing their investment in advancing technologies, relying on automation, machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help protect their organizations.

John Stewart concludes his blog with a sound message: “No single strategy, technological solution or approach will solve all of the challenges that our adversaries throw at us. It takes a comprehensive and unified approach across people, process, technology and policy. By making strategic security improvements, employing advanced technologies and industry leading practices, defenders can increase visibility into a miscreant’s actions, slow their progress, and minimize their exposure to risk. The Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report offers recommendations that will help you and your organization to do just that.”

Download the Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report and learn more about cisco courses that help you set the bar higher in improving your cybersecurity.