Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are at particular risk based on the attack trends seen during the first six months of the year. Out of every five businesses had a cybersecurity breach in the first half of 2021 because of a weakness in their third-party vendor ecosystem. That comes as the average cost of a data breach has risen to about $3.56m, and the typical ransomware payment has risen by 33 per cent to more than $100,000. While it would be a significant financial impact for any organisation, such figures would spell the end for most SMBs, according to Acronis, who believes is a major concern for the second half of 2021.
Phishing emails increased 62 per cent from Q1 to Q2 by using social engineering tactics to mislead naive users into downloading harmful files or links. That spike is of particular concern since 94 per cent of malware is delivered by email. In 2020, more than 1,300 victims of ransomware had their data publicly leaked following an attack, as cybercriminals look to maximise the financial gain from successful incidents. During the first half of 2021, more than 1,100 data leaks have already been published – which projects a 70 per cent increase for the year. Also, remote workers continue to be a prime target. The reliance on remote workers continues in the wake of the pandemic. Two-thirds of remote workers now use work devices for personal tasks and use personal home devices for business activities. As a result, attackers have been actively probing remote workers. Acronis observed more than twice the number of global cyberattacks, with a 300 per cent increase in brute-force attacks against remote machines via RDP.