Annual IBM Threat Intelligence Report Finds More than Half of Cyber Criminal Attacks Pivot Away from Ransomware and Towards Cryptojacking and BEC Campaigns

In its just released X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, IBM summarizes the most prominent threats raised by its research teams from over the past year Some of the major shifts IBM observed include decreased reliance on malware, and on ransomware in particular, and increased numbers of cryptojacking attacks – the illegal use of an organization’s or individual’s computing power without their knowledge to mine cryptocurrencies – and business email compromise (BEC) scams. In terms of this last type of attack, IBM notes that BEC scams accounted for 45 percent of the phishing attacks it observed. Given the threats that abound and the costs to organizations when attacks are successful, IBM warns: “An organization caught unprepared during a cyber incident stands to lose millions of dollars to response and remediation, as well as numerous other breach expenses.” Read the report at IBM.