New research by SonicWall indicates that threat actors are increasingly abandoning traditional attacks like malware and phishing campaigns in favor of more sophisticated, encrypted attacks. While malware campaigns declined by 20% and phishing by 18% this year, encrypted attacks have surged by 76%.
Ransomware increased by 15%, in large part due to the continued proliferation of ransomware-as-a-service offerings. Internet-of-things (IoT) attacks also rose, by 55%. SonicWall CEO Bill Conner says the report shows that “malware might be down, but it’s getting more malicious and nefarious in terms of the type of malware and how it’s coming in.”
Read more: Malware-based Attacks Dropped 20% Worldwide