Email threats grow 101% and remain the main vector of cyberattacks

The data is from Trend Micro's tool that provides protection for webmail providers such as Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace

Trend Micro, a world leader in cybersecurity solutions, detected and blocked, in 2021, more than 33.6 million threats that passed through the email filters of cloud-based providers, which represents an increase of 101% over the previous year. last year. The growth shows that email remains the main point of intrusion for cyber criminals.

The data is part of the report from Cloud App Security (CAS), Trend Micro's API-based solution that provides advanced threat protection for Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace and other cloud services. “We have seen an evolution in the surface of enterprise attacks, with innovation in the strategies adopted, however each year email continues to pose the greatest risk to organizations,” said Jon Clay, vice president of threat intelligence at Trend Micro.

The analysis also reveals that:

•           16.5 million attempts to phishingwere detected with the advancement of the hybrid work model, which means growth of 138%;
•           6.3 million attacks phishing for credential theft were blocked, a increase of 15%;
•           3.3 million malicious files were detected, with growth of 134% from known threats and 221% from new malware.

“Adopting a platform-based approach to security is the best way to mitigate risk and effectively defend against cybercriminals, delivering joint protection, detection and response for emails and endpoints”, recommends Cesar Candido, director general of Trend Micro Brasil.

Although ransomware cases dropped by 43% last year compared to 2020, experts say this is because attacks are more targeted, aiming for the highest possible profit with the least effort. Also included in this account is Trend Micro's successful blocking of ransomware affiliate tools such as Trickbot and BazarLoader.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) detections also dropped by 11%. However, there was an 83% increase in BEC threat blocking by the Trend Micro tool that performs writing style analysis using Artificial Intelligence (AI) features, which indicates that the scams are getting more sophisticated.

For more information about the report, visit ON HERE.