Bitdefender 2018 Mid-year Cybersecurity Review

While we’ve just passed the halfway mark of 2018, data breaches and new threats have been plaguing businesses and organizations, exposing the data of millions of users worldwide. Apart from known and increasingly sophisticated threats, such as ransomware, the hype around cryptocurrency has led to the emergence of cryptojackers, a new problem organizations need to deal with.

Some data breaches from 2017 and even further back, meanwhile, are still haunting organizations. The Yahoo incident continues to raise the financial costs the company has to deal with, adding an extra $35 million in fines.

Equifax revealed that another 2.4 million customers have been affected by its massive data breach, raising the count to 147.5 million customers who have had their private and personal data leaked online.

From DNA testing companies such as MyHeritage, which lost 92 million user emails and hashed passwords, to US Homeland Security, which lost the names, social security numbers and staff job roles of almost 250,000 employees, data breaches have affected banks, retailers, and even military contractors.

Threat actors have become even more financially motivated to go after businesses and organizations instead of the average user. The GranCrab ransomware illustrates that the ransomware-as-a-service business model is continuing to inflict significant financial losses, while undergoing significant improvements in terms of victim targeting and customized ransom fees based on affected industry vertical.

Adware and even cryptojackers blur the line between legitimate use and weaponization to disrupt infrastructures, while hardware vulnerabilities, such as Spectre and Meltdown, raise serious questions for data center security.

However, the security industry is constantly innovating and developing new solutions to effectively fight cyber threats. Traditional security solutions, outpaced by growing threat sophistication, are being replaced by a new generation of integrated solutions. Leveraging the entire stack of security mechanisms – from prevention to detection, investigation and response capabilities – they enable organizations to gain complete visibility into their infrastructures’ security posture and enhance their cyber resilience against even the most sophisticated threats.

For more information on data breaches and new threats that occurred in the first half of 2018, and also for an overview on the new cyber defense options, feel free to join Bitdefender’s Mid-year Cybersecurity Review webinar here, on July 24th at 3 P.M. GMT, hosted by Liviu Arsene, Senior E-threat Analyst and Bogdan Carlescu, Senior Product Marketing Manager.