SAN JOSE, CA – Only 45% of organizations worldwide are confident in their security posture as today’s attackers launch more sophisticated, bold and resilient campaigns, according to new data from Cisco.
The Cisco 2016 Annual Security Report highlights the challenges businesses face due to the rapid advancements of hackers that are increasingly tapping into legitimate resources to launch effective campaigns for profit-gain. Additionally, direct attacks by cybercriminals, leveraging ransomware alone, put $34 million a year per campaign into their hands. These miscreants continue to operate unconstrained by regulatory barriers.
Businesses are up against security challenges that inhibit their ability to detect, mitigate and recover from common and professional cyberattacks. Aging infrastructure and outdated organizational structure and practices are putting them at risk, continues the report.
Other key insights include a growing encryption trend (particularly HTTPS) for web traffic, which often provides a false sense of security to users—and for companies, but potentially cloaks suspicious activity. The use of compromised WordPress servers to support ransomware, bank fraud, and phishing attacks is also on the rise.
“Security is resiliency by design, privacy in mind, and trust transparently seen”, said Cisco SVP chief security and trust officer John N. Stewart, in the news release. “With IoT and digitization taking hold in every business, technology capability must be built, bought, and operated with each of these elements in mind. We cannot create more technical debt. Instead, we must meet the challenge head on today.”
