For the third year in a row, ransomware was the top attack type globally in 2021, despite some successes last year by law enforcement to take down ransomware groups. This was among the top findings of IBM Security’s latest research published in the tenth annual X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, a comprehensive overview of the global threat landscape based on data collected from January to December 2021.
The report underscores the resilience of ransomware, which nets millions of dollars for cybercriminal gangs and threatens to disrupt businesses, supply chains and whole industries. Manufacturing bore the brunt of these attacks, as the industry climbed the rankings to be the top-most attacked industry, surpassing finance and insurance for the first time since 2016.
Furthermore, the report highlights the resurgence in phishing attacks as the top initial attack vector last year. Vulnerability exploitation was right behind phishing as the number two attack vector, while the number of disclosed vulnerabilities continues to surge to record highs. The vulnerability in Apache Log4j was quickly exploited after it was discovered in December, showing the capability of threat actors to jump on newly disclosed security vulnerabilities to launch their attacks.
Below we go into more detail about these top findings, and provide some key recommendations for combating these threats during a time of constant change.
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Ransomware Still the Top Threat
Ransomware was the top attack type in 2021, edging out server access attacks, business email compromise (BEC), data th ..
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