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Cyberthreats Up 24 Percent Since 2017: Report

Cybersecurity attacks in the third quarter of 2017 rose 24 percent from the third quarter of 2016, according to a new report from NTT Security, a specialized security company of NTT Group. The publication, 2017 Global Threat Intelligence (GTIC) Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report, serves as the primary focal point for contextualizing, enhancing and enriching threat intelligence-related information across the NTT Security global client base. The GTIC Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report is uniquely situated to empower frontline Managed Security Services (MSS) SOC analysts, research analysts, network security engineers, professional security service consultants and incident response handlers to gather, share and apply threat-related information.

The Q3 GTIC Report provides details on the reseach conducted by NTT Security over the past three months and focuses on several different areas of research and analysis. One section of the report of particular signficance entitled “The Face of the Insider Threat” reveals that approximately 25 percent of insider threats are hostile with the remaining 75 percent due to accidental or negligent activity. Insider threats can put an organization at risk without even knowing it. In fact, the GTIC indicates that 30 percent of all insider threats put an organization at risk without being aware of the vulnerability.

“Whether it’s an accidental insider threat, where an employee sends sensitive documents to a competitor‘s email or a negligent insider threat, where an employee downloads unauthorized software and spreads a virus through the company, organizations must have a cybersecurity plan in place to minimize these risks,” says Steven Bullitt, vice president  with NTT Security. “The GTIC Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report documents that in instances when organizations do not have a proactive cybersecurity plan in place, the consequences can be devastating. In fact, NTT Security has seen damages due to insider breaches reach more than $30 million. Even in organizations that have well-defined incident response plans, they often don’t provide adequate remediation provisions for insider breaches, leaving the organization less prepared to react quickly.“

A summary of other key findings in the Q3 GTIC Quarterly Threat Intelligence Report include:

• A notable increase in the number of security events during Q3 ’17 - up 24 percent from Q2 ‘17
• The finance industry had the most detections for malicious activity in Q3 ‘17 - representing 25 percent of all cybersecurity attacks
• Rounding out the top five targeted industries were: manufacturing at 21 percent, business services at 16 percent, health care at 13 percent and technology at 12 percent
• Phishing campaigns and malware infections both increased by more than 40 percent over Q2 ‘17
• Attacks from China moved up from the number three spot in Q2 ‘17 to number two in Q3 ‘17
• As an attack source, India also made a huge jump from outside the top 10 up to number three, most likely due to outside actors leveraging vulnerable and/or compromised infrastructure.

The NTT Security Q3 Threat Report can be downloaded for free at www.nttsecurity.com/en-us/gtic-2017-q3-threat-intelligence-report .

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