9.32 billion total malware attacks in 2017

There is no doubt on the cyber-attacks becoming No. 1 business risk and 9.32 billion total malware attacks in 2017, an 18.4 percent year-over-year increase in Ransomware attacks dropped from 638 million to 184 million between 2016 and 2017 .Ransomware variants, however, increased 101.2 percent an average organization will see almost 900 file-based attacks per year hidden by SSL/TLS encryption ,said by Sonicwall Cyber Threat Report.

Stabilizing the cyber arms race requires the responsible, transparent and agile collaboration between governments, law enforcement and the private sector,” said the Honorable Michael Chertoff, Chairman of the Chertoff Group, and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. “Like we witnessed in 2017, joint efforts deliver a hard-hitting impact to cybercriminals and threat actors. This diligence helps disrupt the development and deployment of advanced exploits and payloads, and also deters future criminals from engaging in malicious activity against well-meaning organizations, governments, businesses and individuals.”

As per SonicWall, which has committed for protecting more than 1 million networks worldwide, as trusted security partner announced research and intelligence findings from its 2018 Cyber Threat Report. In sum, the company recorded 9.32 billion malware attacks in 2017 and saw more than 12,500 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) reported for the year.

“The cyber arms race affects every government, business, organization and individual. It cannot be won by any one of us,” said SonicWall CEO Bill Conner. “Our latest proprietary data and findings show a series of strategic attacks and countermeasures as the cyber arms race continues to escalate. By sharing actionable intelligence, we collectively improve our business and security postures against today’s most malicious threats and criminals.”

Last year by June alone, India faced cyber security threats worth over $4 billion. Financial sector witnessed a little less than 50% cyber attacks throughout the year. Needless to mention, it is one of the most targetted countries owing to several reasons such as rapid transition into a cashless economy, increased usage of wireless data, among others. Debashish Mukherjee, Country Director India & SAARC, SonicWall, while speaking about the threats faced specifically within the country had this to share about his observations, “A vast majority of internet traffic is encrypted but most of the vendor solutions are not even addressing that space. We observed this encrypted traffic is the major pain area for our customers; and hence we made deep-packet inspection, a fundamental part of our security architecture and have developed proprietary technology, RFDPI (Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection), which opens and checks every packet of data for threats.

Our Capture technology has enabled us to proactively protect our customers from malware and ransomware attacks.” The annual threat report frames, compares and contrasts advances made by both cybersecurity professionals and global cybercriminals. Cyber attacks are becoming the No. 1 risk to businesses, brands, operations and financials “The risks to business, privacy and related data grow by the day — so much so that cybersecurity is outranking some of the more traditional business risks and concerns,” said Conner.

Security Industry Advances

* Volume marked a 71.2 percent drop from the 638 million ransomware attack events SonicWall recorded in 2016 


* Europe saw 37 percent of ransomware attacks in 2017

* Encrypted SSL/TLS traffic increased 24 percent 


* SSL/TLS traffic made up 68 percent of total traffic in 2017

9.32 billion total malware attacks in 2017, an 18.4 percent year-over-year increase from 2016 Ransomware attacks dropped from 638 million to 184 million between 2016 and 2017 Ransomware variants, however, increased 101.2 percent Traffic encrypted by SSL/TLS standards increased 24 percent, representing 68 percent of total traffic Without SSL decryption capabilities in place, the average organization will see almost 900 attacks per year hidden by SSL/TLS encryption SonicWall identifies almost 500 new, previously unknown malicious files each day

Total ransomware attack volume declines

Even with WannaCry, Petya, NotPetya and Bad Rabbit ransomware attacks stealing the headlines, the expectations of more ransomware attacks simply did not materialize as anticipated in 2017. Full-year data shows that ransomware attacks dropped from 638 million to 184 million between 2016 and 2017.

Regionally, the Americas were victimized the most, receiving 46 percent of all ransomware attack attempts in 2017 . SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), a cloud-based, multi-engine sandbox, identified one new malware variant for every 250 unknown hits SSL/TLS use increases again. Web traffic encrypted by SSL/TLS standards made yet another significant jump in 2017. This shift has already given more opportunity for cybercriminals and threat actors to hide malicious payloads in encrypted traffic.

Tags: sonicwall cyber threat report 2018, global cyber arms race, cyber security, Ransomware attacks, Sonicwall Cyber Threat Report, Michael Chertoff, varindia,  WannaCry, Petya, NotPetya, Bad Rabbit ransomware