Cybercriminals get faster at exploiting new vulnerabilities

A new report from Fortinet shows that the second half of 2023 saw attackers increase the speed with which they capitalized on newly publicized vulnerabilities.

Attacks were carried out 43 percent faster than 1H 2023, starting on average 4.76 days after new exploits were publicly disclosed.

But despite getting better at spotting new exploits cybercriminals are also continuing to target old ones. FortiGuard Labs observes threat actors exploiting some vulnerabilities that are more than 15 years old.

Derek Manky, chief security strategist and global VP threat intelligence at FortiGuard Labs says, "The 2H 2023 Global Threat Landscape Report from FortiGuard Labs continues to shine a light on how quickly threat actors are taking advantage of newly disclosed vulnerabilities. In this climate, both vendors and customers have a role to play. Vendors must introduce robust security scrutiny at all stages of the product development life cycle and dedicate themselves to responsible radical transparency in their vulnerability disclosures. With over 26,447 vulnerabilities across more than 2,000 vendors in 2023 as cited by NIST, it is also critical that customers maintain a strict patching regimen to reduce the risk of exploitation."

Although ransomware detections dropped by 70 percent compared to the first half of 2023 this is attributed to attackers shifting away from the traditional 'spray and pray' strategy to a more targeted approach, aimed largely at the energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and automotive industries.

The report also includes some interesting findings from analysis of the dark web which shows threat actors discussed targeting organizations within the finance industry most often, followed by the business services and education sectors. More than 3,000 data breaches were shared on prominent dark web forums, while 221 vulnerabilities were actively discussed on the darknet, with 237 vulnerabilities discussed on Telegram channels.

The full report is available from the Fortinet site.

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