Cyber criminals a growing threat to digital economy

Cyber criminals are building “an army of things” that has the potential to impact the future of the digital economy, according to a report by US cybersecurity software provider Fortinet. The group says that its research reveals constantly changing and sophisticated avenues of attack, targeting evolving technology infrastructure enabled by a fast-growing underground cybercrime economy. Among […]

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March 29, 2017 Categories

Cyber criminals are building “an army of things” that has the potential to impact the future of the digital economy, according to a report by US cybersecurity software provider Fortinet.

The group says that its research reveals constantly changing and sophisticated avenues of attack, targeting evolving technology infrastructure enabled by a fast-growing underground cybercrime economy.

Among its findings is that the finance and insurance sectors have been hit particularly hard by the rising threat of ransomware, with 43% of organisations that participated in its research reporting malicious activity due to ransomware. 

“The cybersecurity challenges facing organisations today are complex with a threat landscape that is rapidly evolving,” commented Phil Quade, chief information security officer (CISO) at Fortinet. “Threats are intelligent, autonomous, and increasingly difficult to detect, with new ones emerging and old ones returning with enhanced capabilities.

“In addition, the accessibility of threat creation tools and services combined with the reward potential is driving the growth of the global cybercrime market into tens of billions of US dollars. To protect themselves, CISOs need to ensure that the data and security elements across all of their environments and devices are integrated, automated, and able to share intelligence, across an organization, from Internet of Things (IoT) to the cloud.”

Among other findings in the just-published Global Threat Landscape Report:

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