Detection needs to improve to combat evolving malware

Critical infrastructure protection specialist OPSWAT has released its latest Threat Intelligence Trends survey looking at organizations to manage the current threat landscape and how to prepare for future challenges.

It finds that 62 percent of organizations recognize the need for additional investments in tools and processes to enhance their threat intelligence capabilities. Only 22 percent have fully matured threat intelligence programs in place though, with most indicating that they are only in the early stages or need to make additional investments in tools and processes.

"Threat intelligence plays a crucial role in safeguarding critical assets," says Jan Miller, CTO of threat analysis at OPSWAT. "Understanding the evolving threat landscape empowers organizations to stay one step ahead of malicious actors, and in this rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape, it becomes the critical strategic advantage."

The report is based on responses from over 300 IT professionals responsible for malware detection, analysis, and response within their organizations. It shows they face some common challenges, including detecting both known and unknown malware (68 percent), grappling with inadequate signature-based solutions (67 percent), and dealing with fragmented tools (54 percent).

While only 11 percent of respondents currently use AI for threat detection, 56 percent of security professionals say they are optimistic about the use of it in the future, though 27 percent remain skeptical.

Among other findings, around half of all participants note that phishing URLs and email are among the top concerns for file type and delivery methods -- emphasizing the importance of advanced security measures such as Deep Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR), sandboxing, and link reputation checks.

The full report is available from the OPSWAT site.

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