On February 6, Acronis, a disaster recovery and cloud security company, and partner of ALTERNcloud, published a report detailing the most prevalent cyber threats of 2023, helping analysts know what to look out for in 2024. 

The Acronis Report: Key Findings

In the report, Acronis compiled data from over one million endpoints located across 15 different countries, in order to develop a robust outlook on the latest cyberthreats facing countries around the world. In their findings, the team at Acronis discovered:

• In Q4 2023, Singapore, Spain and Brazil emerged as the most targeted countries for malware attacks.
• Acronis blocked nearly 28 million malicious URLs at the endpoint in Q4 2023, representing a 36% decrease compared to the previous year.
• A significant portion of received emails (33.4%) were identified as spam, with 1.5% containing malware or phishing links.
• Each malware sample lived an average of 2.1 days in the wild before disappearing.
• Q4 2023 witnessed 1,353 publicly mentioned ransomware cases, with notable contributions from groups such as LockBit, Play, ALPHV and Cyber Toufan.

• Ransomware continues to be a major threat: Large and medium-sized businesses, as well as MSPs, continue to face significant ransomware threats in H2 2023.
• Data stealers and stolen credentials: Data stealers rank as the second most prevalent threat, contributing to a majority of data breaches.
• AI-driven cyberattacks: The rise of generative AI systems like ChatGPT has facilitated the launch of cyberattacks, creation of malicious content and automation of attacks.
• Surge in email attacks: The number of email attacks detected in 2023 surged by 222% compared to the second half of 2022.

How ALTERNcloud protects clients from cyberattacks

In the current threat landscape, it is essential that organizations proactively apply strict security measures across their networks – from bolstering on and off-premise systems, to selecting service providers they are confident maintain high levels of cybersecurity on their own systems.

At ALTERNcloud, we offer a variety of vital services that work together to keep your business secure against cyberthreats and ensure your operations never experience downtime.