Most of the attacks observed through the Mimecast Threat Center at this time were bureaucracies of simple, high-volume attacks, such as spam and phishing, which likely reflect ease of access to online computers and kits. As the attacks progressed, the exploits evolved into a tougher bureaucracy of malware and ransomware, and the attacker’s goal appeared to be a financial gain.
In addition, malware-focused campaigns are components of 2020 and have become increasingly sophisticated. 42 main campaigns were known during the six-month era covered by the report. Campaigns have shown significant construction in the use of short-term, high-volume, targeted, hybrid attacks opposed to many sectors of the U.S. economy. Mimecast researchers are highest highs, probably the result of risk actors targeting industries that remained open during the era of “staying at home” in the United States, as well as those that are essential for the country’s recovery from the existing pandemic. Interestingly, the media and publishing sectors have experienced large volumes of identity theft attacks, potentially as a way for cybercriminals to spread misinformation in the United States.
“If one thing is for certain, the pandemic we’re living in today has caused significant challenges. We’ve continued to see threat actors tap into the vulnerabilities of humans and launch campaign after campaign with a COVID-19 hook, in attempt to get users to click harmful links or open malicious files,” said Josh Douglas, vice president of product management, threat intelligence at Mimecast. “The ultimate goal of Mimecast’s Threat Intelligence reports are to help organizations better understand today’s threat landscape, so they can prepare for tomorrow’s threats and make better informed decisions to improve their cybersecurity and resilience.”
MethodologyThe Mimecast Threat Intelligence Report: Black Hat U.S.A. Edition provides analysis of 195 billion emails processed by Mimecast for its customers during the period of January through June 2020, 92 billion of which were rejected (47%) for being malicious or spam. Four primary threat categories were analyzed in this report: spam, impersonation attacks, opportunistic attacks and targeted attacks. Mimecast Threat Intelligence is designed to improve the efficacy of our Email Security 3.0 approach that delivers security and resilience at the perimeter, inside the network and organization, and outside the perimeter.
For the full Threat Intelligence Report and a list of recommendations to better protect your organization, visit here.
Mimecast: Relentless protection. Resilient world.™Mimecast (NASDAQ: MIME) was born in 2003 with a focus on delivering relentless protection. Each day, we take on cyber disruption for our tens of thousands of customers around the globe; always putting them first, and never giving up on tackling their biggest security challenges together. We are the company that built an intentional and scalable design ideology that solves the number one cyberattack vector – email. We continuously invest to thoughtfully integrate brand protection, security awareness training, web security, compliance and other essential capabilities. Mimecast is here to help protect large and small organizations from malicious activity, human error and technology failure; and to lead the movement toward building a more resilient world. Learn more about us at www.mimecast.com.
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