Ransomware attacks down despite general hike in cyber intrusions

Jessica Kim Cohen -

The incidence of ransomware attacks is decreasing, despite cyberattacks generally rising in the last year, according to ISACA's fourth annual "State of Cybersecurity" survey.

For the 2018 version of the survey, the international IT governance association polled more than 2,300 cybersecurity professionals worldwide about the emerging threat landscape

Here are four survey insights:

1. Half of the cybersecurity leaders agreed they had seen an increase in cyberattack volumes compared to last year.

2. Respondents have seen a dip in ransomware attacks. Forty-five percent of cybersecurity professionals said their organization had experienced a ransomware attack in this year's survey, compared to 62 percent last year — a 17-point drop.

3. ISACA attributed the drop in ransomware attacks to increased awareness and preparedness after international incidents like WannaCry, a worldwide ransomware attack that infected 200,000-plus computers in more than 150 countries in May 2017. Eighty-two percent of respondents said that their organizations now have ransomware strategies in place.

4. The three most common attack vectors — phishing, malware and social engineering — remained the same in 2018 and 2017.

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