According to SonicWall, global malware detections will grow 2% year-over-year to reach 5.5 billion in 2022, with a 5% surge in unprecedented variants.
Security vendors captured and compiled threat intelligence, including 1 million security sensors, from the global SonicWall Capture Threat Network. 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.
A total of 465,501 new malware samples were uncovered. This is evidence of continued innovation in the cybercrime underground. SonicWall said these findings “often closely match zero-day attack patterns.”
The vendor also saw a 43% increase in cryptojacking malware to reach a record 139 million “low and slow” attacks, and an 87% increase in IoT malware to reach 112 million. I also recorded.
These increases offset a 21% decline in ransomware volume. However, in total he was 493 million, making it the second-highest year on record after 2021.
The education (275%), finance (41%), and healthcare (8%) sectors saw significant increases in ransomware attacks, while Europe (70%) and the UK (112%) saw year-on-year spikes.
The European figures are due to record malware (26 million) and ransomware (7 million) detections in Ukraine. Also, according to SonicWall, the UK is her second-most attacked country in the world, after the US, and second only to Spain.
This is despite year-over-year declines in overall malware detections in countries such as the US (-9%), UK (-13%), and Germany (-28%).
However, the amount of malware recorded worldwide increased for the first time in four years, reaching a staggering 6.3 trillion intrusion attempts.
Elsewhere, Log4j remains a persistent challenge for network defenders, with SonicWall recording over 1 billion intrusion attempts in 2022 using the Log4Shell exploit.
Immanuel Chavoya, Threat Detection and Response Strategist at SonicWall, said:
“In addition to cyber-attacks becoming more sophisticated and covert, attackers have a clear preference for certain techniques, including vulnerable IoT devices, cryptojacking, and soft targets such as schools and hospitals. There is a noticeable shift to
