As attackers leave little-to-no traces of their attack patterns, more ransomware groups are shifting from automated attacks to manual attacks. According to the newly-released Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023, about 40% of the ransomware attacks detected were human-driven and tracked back to over 120 ransomware-as-a-service (RWaaS) affiliates. This spike in human-operated ransomware attacks likely goes back to attackers wanting to minimize their footprint within an organization.

Credential harvesting has become a business in and of itself within the cybercrime economy. New insight from Microsoft details the types of attacks your organization should watch out for. I’ve attempted to cover every Microsoft 365 credential harvesting attack since the platform is so popular and is an easy target for cybercriminals. But the news coming from their newly-released Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023 puts this type of attack into perspective.

Even though there are new attack types for cybercriminals, they are still leveraging old-school attack vectors. Why? Because they still work. I cover new attack methods all the time, with recent examples including a sophisticated phishing campaign impersonating Microsoft and an attack last month targeting the Ukrainian military.

We are thrilled to announce that KnowBe4 has been named a leader in the latest G2 Grid Report that compares security awareness training (SAT) vendors based on user reviews, customer satisfaction, popularity and market presence. The latest G2 Grid Report compares Security Awareness Training (SAT) vendors based on user reviews, customer satisfaction, popularity and market presence.

According to the recent The Cyber-Resilient CEO report released by IT services and consulting agency Accenture, a staggering 74% of CEOs have expressed concerns about their organizations' ability to protect their businesses from cyber attacks. This is despite the fact that 96% of CEOs acknowledge the importance of cybersecurity for the growth and stability of their organizations.

As attackers evolve their toolsets and processes, the significant drop in dwell time signifies a much higher risk to organizations that now have less time to detect and respond to initial attacks. This is bad news. Two years ago, the median dwell time – the time between gaining access to a network and executing the ransomware – was 5.5 days. Last year it was 4.5 days.

The massive uptick in business email compromise (BEC) is considered one of the costliest attack types, requiring organizations to put employees on notice to stay vigilant. The latest research from the FBI puts the average cost of BEC attacks at around $125,000. What makes them so dangerous is that they largely rely on text-only emails using social engineering to trick those with finance responsibilities into parting with the money they control.