Cyber security company Trend Micro unveiled a report this month that presents data from the cyber incidents the company faced in 2023. From the report it appears that in 2023 there was an annual increase of 10% in the total number of threats blocked, with the company warning that the attackers are using more advanced methods in their attacks With the potential for higher financial gains in each targeted attack compared to methods based on mass attacks.From the report data, it can be learned that Trend Micro blocked 161 billion threats in 2023, compared to 82 billion threats five years ago. In 2023, threats blocked by the company’s email and Internet security systems decreased compared to the previous year by 47% and 2 %, respectively.
Threats blocked by Trend’s mobile application service also decreased by 2% compared to 2022. In the smart home network there was a 12% decrease in the number of blocked attacks and in IoT there was a 64% decrease. However, there was a 35% year-over-year increase in threats blocked within Trend Micro’s File Service (FRS).
Some other trends observed in the report include:
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- Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) players showed variety and sophistication in their attacks, and especially in defensive evasion tactics.
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- Email malware detection jumped 349% year-over-year, while detection of malicious URLs and phishing dropped 27% over the same period.
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- Business email breach detection has increased by 16% over the past year.
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- Ransomware attacks on Linux and MacOS systems accounted for 8% of all ransomware detections.
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- There has been an increase in cybercriminal activities such as: remote encryption, intermittent encryption, EDR bypass using unmonitored virtual machines (VMs), and multiple ransomware attacks where victims have been hit more than once. Attackers have identified EDR systems as a formidable defense, but are now using tactics to circumvent this technology.
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- Thailand and the US were the two countries most affected by ransomware, with banking being the most affected sector.
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- The company’s Zero Day Initiative discovered and exposed 1,914 cases, a 12% increase over the previous year. These included 111 Adobe Acrobat and Reader bugs. Adobe was the number one vendor for reporting vulnerabilities, and PDF files were the number one spam attachment type.