2020 sees ransomware increase by over 400 percent

A new study from cybersecurity company Deep Instinct, finds that last year malware increased by 358 percent overall and ransomware increased by 435 percent as compared with 2019.

The report which analyzes millions of attacks taking place across the year finds distribution of the Emotet malware skyrocketed by 4,000 percent, while malware threats attacking Android phones increased by 263 percent.

July saw the largest increase in malicious activity, up by 653 percent compared with the previous year. Microsoft Office documents are the most manipulated document attack vector and these attacks were up by 112 percent.

"We've seen the pandemic accelerate companies' business transformations to conducting business online while the abrupt switch to the work-from-home model widened organizations’ attack surface. It's no wonder that security teams have difficulty keeping up with the onslaught of attacks of every different type," says Guy Caspi, co-founder and CEO of Deep Instinct. "And the problem is not limited to the sheer volume of attacks, our study shows that the sophistication of attacks has grown with advanced evasive tactics that make detection much more difficult."

The full report is available from the Deep Instinct site and you can register for a webinar to discuss the findings to be held on February 23rd at 1pm ET. There's also an infographic summary of the findings below.

Image credit: AndreyPopov/depositphotos.com