Malware Attacks Up, Ransomware Attacks Down in 2017, SonicWall Reports

There were a lot of mixed signals in the cyber-security attack landscape in 2017, according to security firm SonicWall. The total volume of malware attacks last year grew to 9.32 billion, up from 7.87 billion 2016, revealed the company in its 2018 Cyber Threat Report, released on March 6. However, the 25-page report also found that while malware attacks were up, the number of unique malware samples collected in 2017 declined, as did the volume of ransomware attacks, even though the number of unique ransomware variants actually increased. In this slide show, eWEEK looks at some of the highlights from the SonicWall 2018 Cyber Threat Report.

After declining in 2016, malware attacks bounced back in 2017. SonicWall reported 9.32 billion malware attacks in 2017, up from 7.87 billion in 2016.

There was an inverse relationship in 2017 between the volume of malware attacks and the number of unique malware samples collected by SonicWall. Fifty-six million unique malware samples were collected in 2017, down from 60 million in 2016.

SonicWall reported a 71.2 percent year-over-year drop in the number of ransomware attacks in 2017.

While the total number of ransomware attacks declined in 2017, SonicWall saw 101.2 percent more unique ransomware variants over the course of the year.

Organizations are increasingly using HTTP encryption for data traffic, with SonicWall reporting that HTTPS accounted for 68 percent of overall sessions.

As overall HTTPS use is growing, so too is the use of encryption by malware.

In 2017, attackers shifted focus from going after Adobe’s Flash Player, which was a top target in 2016, to Microsoft’s Edge browser.