Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new methods of attack and vulnerable points of entry into targeted organizations’ systems. In this cat-and-mouse game, they try to keep one step ahead of cybersecurity professionals, who invest intensive efforts to preempt the attacks and prevent the adversaries from succeeding. They face formidable challenges.

Cyber threats continued to increase in 2024, as they have in the previous years. This increase is attributed to a variety of reasons, among them widening digitization, remote work, and use of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 warns that cyber risks such as malware, deepfakes and misinformation threaten supply chains, financial stability and democracy. The Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024 warned that the “same attack vectors that have been employed by cybercriminals are still being used; however, new technology paves the way for nefarious activity.”

Check Point Software Technologies has identified a 30% increase in weekly attacks on corporate networks from Q2 2023 to Q2 2024, reaching an average of 1,636 attacks per organization per week. However, cyber attacks have not only dramatically increased in frequency; they have also become more and more sophisticated as cyber criminals expand their use of advanced techniques like AI and machine learning (Check Point Research, July 2024). The heightened intensity and complexity are demonstrated in cyber attacks that include social engineering, ransomware and DDoS attacks (Forbes, June 2024). The top trends in 2024, as identified by Gartner, are unsecured employee behavior, third-party risks, continuous threat exposure, and identity-first approaches to security.

A further challenge is presented by the growing the number of connected IoT devices, which according to the latest available data, number approximately 18.8 billion (September 2024). Their number is expected to more than double due to 5G and various other technologies and reach 41.1 billion by 2030. According to some sources, nearly 60% of IoT cyber attacks were perpetrated with the intent to mine cryptocurrency.

The use of cryptocurrency is also on the rise, including among organized crime groups. Incidents targeting cryptocurrency firms ballooned by a jaw-dropping 600% in Q1 2023 (Cloudflare), and the global cost of crypto crime is predicted to reach $30 billion in 2025 (Cybersecurity Ventures). Fortra reported that stolen fund inflows rose significantly in H1 2024, nearly doubling from $857 million to $1.58 billion, while ransomware inflows rose by approximately 2%, from $449.1 million to $459.8 million. The Ronin Network hack in 2022 remains the largest known crypto hack, amounting to more than $625 million in cryptocurrency stolen. It is attributed to the Lazarus Group, a hacking collective backed by North Korea.

With the increased use of cloud computing, the frequency of attacks targeting cloud computing resources and infrastructures is also on the rise. In mid-2024, the cyber attack on Snowflake, a leading cloud-based data storage and analytics provider, compromised many of its clients. Through use of malware, the attackers obtained login credentials and offered to sell the full names, addresses, phone numbers, and partial credit card numbers of 560 million Ticketmaster customers – one of six Snowflake client companies affected, another being Santander Bank.

Among the cyber attacks illustrating the gravity of the situation is the breach at National Public Data, which specializes in collecting and aggregating public records. As a result of the attack, nearly 2.7 billion records were stolen, including the names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and in some cases, also financial information of hundreds of millions of Americans, as well as of citizens of other countries. It appears that the breach occurred in December 2023, and first became known when the stolen data was offered for sale on the dark web in April 2024. It resurfaced again in August 2024 on “Breach Forums”, where it was shared for free. This placed an immense number of individuals at increased risk of identity theft.

Illustrating the severe effects on business are the cyber attacks in June 2024 targeting CDK Global, an American multinational corporation providing data and technology. As a result of the attacks, some 15,000 car dealerships in the USA and Canada were unable to access their software systems and serve their clients, and were forced to look for temporary analog solutions. Multiple sources believe that the company almost certainly met the hackers’ demands and paid them $25 million. According to Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG), the direct losses suffered by the impacted auto dealerships cost dealers $600 million in the first two weeks alone. It estimated at the time that the losses could reach a collective $1 billion.

Global cybercrime costs are expected to increase to $10.5 trillion by 2025 – a sum exponentially greater than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and cybercrime is predicted to become more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined (Cybersecurity Ventures).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the average annual cost of cybercrime will continue to increase exponentially and reach $23 trillion in 2027, up from $8.4 trillion in 2022.

While the need for effective cybersecurity continues to grow, the number of organizations with minimum viable resilience has shrunk by 30% in 2024, due to a lack of resources and skills in 52% of the organizations (Sentinel 1).

According to McKinsey & Company, $213 billion will be spent on cybersecurity software in 2024 by the corporate sector, yet companies should be spending a collective sum of $2 trillion; this leaves a gap of $1.8 trillion.

A gap also exists between the need for qualified cybersecurity professionals and the available workforce. Sentinel 1 indicates that the shortage in 2024 is 4 million, and if not addressed with the latest technology and innovative solutions, could reach 85 million by 2030.

For you, the IT security professional, “know thy enemy” is imperative. You, like your colleagues, are most likely scrambling to improve your cybersecurity in order to prevent business disruption, and avoid financial harm, loss of clients, and damage to reputation.

Still, the actions you take may be insufficiently effective, or too late.

This is where ACID comes in.

Cognizant of the immense shortage and cost of cybersecurity professionals, we offer a cost-effective solution that enhances your cybersecurity posture without the need to expand your IT security workforce, in whichever industry or sector you operate.

ACID Technologies monitors the dark web, deep web and a multitude of other sources, using client-specific keywords in the language/s relevant to each client.

ACID unleashes clusters of robots and implements advanced AI algorithms to detect the first hints of hostile activity specifically targeting your company. It then sends you alerts and detailed information in real-time, with immediate updates as soon as more information becomes available. With this valuable, precise and up-to-date data, you are better equipped to implement effective countermeasures, mitigate the consequences of the planned attack, or perhaps foil it entirely.

When detecting an attack that is already in progress, ACID continues collecting information and updates you immediately for as long as the threat persists, to enable you to tailor and improve your response.

Thanks to the real-time alerts, advance knowledge and continuously updated detailed information, with ACID, your investment in cybersecurity will potentially save you the exponentially greater costs of ransom demands, regulatory fines, disrupted operation and recovery, as well as the loss of clients resulting from reputational damage.

Ransomware attacks continue to pose a serious threat to businesses.

According to the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) 2024 Report on Cybersecurity and Resilience, ransomware developers and operators not only continue to advance their tactics and tools, but some also offer their services as Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), enabling less tech-savvy perpetrators to launch ransomware attacks as well.

In its report of 2024, Sophos stated that 59% of organizations were hit by ransomware in the last year, with the leading root causes being exploited vulnerabilities (32%) and compromised credentials (29%).

According to 94% of the victims, the attackers targeted their backups, with a 57% success rate of backup compromise attempts.

70% of attacks resulted in data encryption, with state and local government reporting the highest rate of data encryption: 98%.

32% of victims whose data was encrypted also had data stolen. IT, technology and telecoms experienced the highest rate of data theft: 53%.

The sum of the average initial ransom demand was $2 million, and on average, in 94% of cases payment was made.

98% of organizations recovered their encrypted data by either using backups (68%) or paying the ransom (56%), with some victims using both methods.

The average recovery cost was $2.73 million (excluding the ransom payment), with 34% of organizations requiring more than a month to recover.