Since the first documented ransomware attack occurred in the late 80s, the attack method has increasingly become a threat to organizations and individual consumers. One cybercriminal may lock up a family’s computer and hold their precious photo memories hostage with the threat of deleting them. Another may cripple a business by locking up their primary revenue generating application database, costing the company millions of dollars in lost sales by the minute.

Impostor email attacks are a growing trend and problem. Attackers will target your employees, customers, and business partners with these advanced attacks. It is now widely known that Cybercriminals aim to exploit users within organizations rather than the technology. Their sole purpose, to steal money and information which could prove financially valuable.

At RSA 2019, we conducted a survey that netted 733 respondents along with interviews between Javvad Malik, former security advocate at AT&T Cybersecurity, and security experts. The full results are in his comprehensive and informative research report. Following are a few highlights.

You would be hard-pressed these days to remain ignorant of the growth of ransomware incidents experienced by organizations large and small. We’ve seen a ton of press around these events, from CryptoLocker to WannaCry. The impact of this type of malware is newsworthy.

It’s estimated that Ransomware costs will climb to roughly $11.5 billion in 2019, according to CSO Online. The frequency of attacks continues to increase as well. According to a report on Ransomware, these attacks occurred once every 120 seconds in early 2016. By 2017 this spiked to an attack occurring every 40 seconds. In 2019, the frequency is expected to grow to an attack happening every 14 seconds.

Given you’re here, you’re likely new to this topic, so please be aware in that fileless malware, fileless malware attack, and fileless attack are different words for the same thing. With that clear, let’s jump in!

In the last few years, organizations have been subject to extortion through ransomware. Now, hackers are bypassing the nasty business of trying to get people to give them cryptocurrency to simply hijacking your processor to mine for cryptocurrency. As a result, the methods employed are growing in sophistication and creativity, including using internet memes to compromise systems.

Rohan Viegas of VMRay explains some of the key factors IT security teams should consider when evaluating a malware analysis sandbox and whether it’s a good fit for their existing SIEM environment. He then outlines how VMRay Analyzer complements and enhances the capabilities of AlienVault’s flagship platform, USM Anywhere.

Malware Analysis is the process whereby security teams such as Incident Response Handlers perform a detailed analysis of a given malware sample and then determine its purpose, functionality, and potential impact. Conducting malware analysis manually is a cumbersome and time-consuming process as it involves a lot of security professionals, resources, and budget.