Recent findings in a SpyCloud report shows companies are starting to recognize and shift their priorities to defend against ransomware attacks, but the use of infostealer malware still has a high success rate for cybercriminals.
According to SpyCloud's analysis, 76% of infections that preceded these ransomware events involved Raccoon infostealer malware. Infostealer malware is a commonly used predecessor to ransomware these days, and was the source behind 22% of ransomware events in North America and Europe in 2023.
In a statement from Trevor Hilligoss, Senior Director of Security Research at SpyCloud, “Ransomware is a malware problem at its core, and there’s a clear pattern emerging that shows infostealer malware is directly leading to ransomware attacks".
An interesting finding about this report that I have to push back on is that organizations want to move away from security awareness training and focus on other security measures such as implementing multi-factor authentication and data backups as countermeasures to ransomware.
While we find these additional security layers to be important to include, we have to emphasize the importance of new-school security awareness training. Your users are the last line of defense, and the data doesn't lie.
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