2023 Cyber Threat Report

The constant evolution of cybercrime: What you need to know.

The SonicWall Cyber Threat Report 2023 has just been released, providing valuable insight into the shifting frontlines of cybercrime. While ransomware attacks decreased by 21% in 2022, the total volume still easily eclipses previous years, with worrying signs of a rise again by the end of the year. Education and finance industries were heavily targeted, with increases of 275% and 41%, respectively, and Europe saw an 83% increase in ransomware, including a 112% increase in the UK.

Malware attacks increased by 2% year over year, the first rise since 2018, driven by a 43% rise in crypto-jacking and an 87% spike in IoT malware, which offset a 21% drop in global ransomware volume. Countries that typically see more malware, such as the US, UK, and Germany, saw decreases in malware volume, while the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America saw increases of 38% and 17%, respectively.

IoT malware volume jumped dramatically in 2022, breaking the 100 million mark for the first time and setting a new yearly record. Much of this spike was centred in North America, where attacks rose 145%, and the US, which saw volumes rise 169%.

Crypto-jacking also continued to rise, with SonicWall recording 139.3 million crypto-jacking attacks in 2022, representing a 43% increase over 2021 and a 142.3% increase since they began tracking this malware in 2018. With several new campaigns surfacing late in the year, we’re likely to see this total continue to rise — particularly in Europe, where attack volume surged a staggering 549% year-over-year.

Intrusion attempts increased by 19% year over year, with a sizeable spike in the percentage of RCE (remote code execution) attempts, which now make up 21.5% of total malicious intrusions, a larger share than any other attack type.

SonicWall Capture ATP and patented Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection™ (RTDMI) discovered 465,501 never-before-seen malware variants last year, an average of 1,279 per day. SonicWall Capture ATP also logged a 35% year-over-year increase in the number of new PDF-based attacks, pushing PDFs into the top three malicious file types discovered and blocked by Capture ATP.

Overall, the SonicWall Cyber Threat Report 2023 highlights the continued evolution of cybercrime, with attackers showing a renewed interest in subtlety. The report offers actionable threat intelligence to arm organisations against today’s ever-changing threat environment.

You can find out more by reading the full 2023 cyber threat report.

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