Acronis Report : Cybersecurity trends of 2021, the year of extortion

Acronis was the first company to implement complete integrated cyber protection to protect all data, applications and systems. Cyber protection requires researching and monitoring of threats, as well as abiding by the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection – safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS). 

As part of the strategy, we’ve established three Cyber Protection Operation Centers (CPOC) around the world to monitor and research cyberthreats 24/7. 

We’ve also upgraded our current flagship products: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, part of the Acronis Cyber Cloud platform for service providers, and Acronis Cyber Protect 15, an on-premises solution. Prior to these releases, 

Acronis had been a leader in the cyber protection market with its innovative Acronis Active Protection antiransomware technology, which evolved over time to demonstrate Acronis’ unique expertise at stopping threats aimed at data. However, it’s important to note that the AI- and behavior-based detection technologies that Acronis developed in 2016 were expanded to address all forms of malware and other potential threats. 

This report covers the threat landscape, as per encountered by our sensors and analysts in 2020. The general malware data presented in the report is gathered from June to October this year, after the launch of Acronis Cyber Protect in May 2020, and reflects the threats targeting endpoints that we detected during these past months. 

This report represents a global outlook and is based on more than 100,000 unique endpoints distributed around the world. Only threats for Windows operating systems are reflected in this report because they are much more prevalent than those targeting macOS. We will continue to watch how the situation develops and may include data on macOS threats in the next year’s report. 

THE TOP FIVE NUMBERS OF 2020:

• 31% of global companies are attacked by cybercriminals at least once a day 

• Maze ransomware accounted for almost 50% of all known ransomware cases 

• More than 1000 companies had their data leaked after ransomware attacks 

• Microsoft patched close to 1,000 flaws in its products in just nine months. 

• The average life-time of a malware sample is 3.4 days 

CYBERSECURITY TRENDS WE IDENTIFY AS KEY IN 2021:

• Attacks on remote workers will only increase.

• Data exfiltration will become bigger than data encryption

• More attacks on MSPs, small business, and cloud

• Ransomware will be looking at new targets

• Attackers will use more automation and the number of malware samples will rise 

WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS REPORT:

 • Top security/threat trends we observed in 2020

• General malware statistics and key families reviewed

• Ransomware statistics with a deep-dive analysis of the most dangerous threats 

• Why confidential data exposure is stage two in most successful ransomware attacks 

• Which vulnerabilities contribute to the success of attacks

• Why MSPs are increasingly under threat 

• Our security forecast and recommendations for 2021

Download the Report