Targeted ransomware attacks are becoming more common as an increasing number of businesses adopt Linux systems, new research from Trend Micro has found.
Overall, it says 63 billion threats were blocked by the company's systems in the first half of 2022 alone, which Trend Micro says represents a significant 52% increase compared with the same period in 2021.
In an effort to fight off unwelcome attacks, companies are combining multiple malware tools to ensure that they cover all bases, however Trend Micro’s concern is that “threat actors are able to weaponize these flaws faster than vendors can release patch updates”.
Linux ransomware attacks
Of top interest to cyberattackers, says Trend Micro, are government, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors.
While large companies storing swathes of sensitive information remain a key target in these attacks, small and medium businesses (SMBs) have been under increasing pressure in the fight to obtain better cybersecurity.
Trend Micro cites ‘Black Basta’ as one of the most notable attacks in the first half of 2022, which affected 50 organizations in a two-month period.
Threat actors are also said to be abusing cloud tunneling services and cloud-based crypto mining on top of exploiting misconfigured environments that has become commonplace in ransomware attacks.
“New and emerging threat groups continue to evolve their business model, focusing their attacks with even greater precision,” Trend Micro VP of threat intelligence, Jon Clay noted
Clay urged companies to obtain a better understanding of their risks and to continue investing in services such as endpoint protection on their typically “expanding digital attack surface[s]”.
When we asked Trend Micro for the best advice on protecting your company, we received the following from Technical Director Bharat Mistry:
“Emerging threat actors and new types of RaaS groups continue to threaten organizations in cyberspace. As more organizations continue to adapt to cloud and hybrid cloud environments, the fast-changing threat landscape calls for a more integrated approach that focuses on attack surface management to facilitate faster response time, greater visibility, mitigating risk, and beyond.”
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