Unmasking the Threats: A Preview of the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report

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Each year, the SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team gathers and analyzes threat data captured by the SonicWall Capture Threat Network, which includes more than 1 million sensors across the world. The end result is one of the cybersecurity industry’s most anticipated and comprehensive reports on the current threat landscape: the annual SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.

The 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report is scheduled for release on March 26. As always, the threat intelligence contained within the full report will prove vital to enterprise and government IT security teams globally.

The report will also help SMBs navigate the complex cyber threat landscape. The 2018 State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium Size Businesses study revealed that 47 percent of respondents admitted to having no understanding of how to defend their companies against cyberattacks.

At SonicWall, we are committed to helping SMBs arm themselves with the knowledge and solutions necessary to navigate the current threat landscape and protect what is important to them. SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner considers the annual Cyber Threat Report to be a vital component in SonicWall’s mission “to ensure organizations and businesses are better informed to safeguard their networks and data.”

“Investing in cyber threat research and publishing our findings,” explains Bill, “helps foster collaboration between the private sector, security industry and trusted third parties to bolster a strong, united front against cyberattacks.”

What to Expect

To give you an idea of what you can expect from this year’s full report, we’ve pulled some highlights and high-level perspectives on the threat intelligence from SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers.

Individual Countries are Driving Change
After SonicWall Capture Lab threat researchers finished analyzing full-year 2018 threat data, a number of shocking revelations were made. In a number of threat areas, individual countries are bucking the global trends and managing to achieve significant volume reductions in major attack areas like ransomware.

Attacks Against Non-Standard Ports
Ports 80 and 443 are standard ports for web traffic, so they are where most firewalls focus their protection. In response, cybercriminals are targeting a range of non-standard ports to ensure their payloads can be deployed undetected in a target environment. The problem? Organizations aren’t safeguarding this vector, leaving attacks unchecked.

Processor Vulnerabilities Growing

New side-channel threats, such as Spectre, Meltdown, Foreshadow, Spoiler and PortSmash, are moving the cyber war to an entirely new theater — one that is extremely difficult to monitor, defend or patch.

Want the report first?

To promote global awareness and facilitate important dialogues, SonicWall remains steadfast in its commitment to research, analyze and share threat intelligence via the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report. Sign up now and be first to #KnowTheThreats.

Ask an Insider: Join our Twitter Chat

Ready to learn more about the data behind the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report? Or do you want to ask a SonicWall researcher about some of the report conclusions and predictions? Join us and our guest researchers from SonicWall Capture Labs in an upcoming SonicWall Twitter Chat. Here’s a preview of the questions we’ll be asking you and our researchers:

  • In your opinion, what was the worst data breach of 2018?
  • What are your biggest concerns about side-channel attacks?
  • Why have PDFs and Office files become such a popular attack vector?
  • What is a new attack variant and how can there have so many in 2018?
  • What types of IOT devices are most often compromised?
  • What are the business impacts of cryptojacking attacks?
  • What’s the worst cybersecurity advice you’ve ever been given?
  • What are your 2019 predictions?

To join our chat, and ask our researchers anything, follow @SonicWall and the hashtag #SonicWallChat on Twitter starting at 11 a.m. CDT on March 28.

Sign up now to receive the full 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, which will feature detailed threat findings, best practices, predictions and more, to help you stay a step ahead in the global cyber arms race.

SonicWall Staff