Sophos 2024 Threat Report
Cyberthreats to small businesses are expanding beyond ransomware. Here’s what you need to know.
Cybercrime affects people from all walks of life, but it hits small businesses the hardest. In the Sophos 2024 Threat Report: Cybercrime on Main Street, we take a close look at the expanding array of existential threats to smaller organizations.
Download the report today to discover the latest trends in the ransomware landscape, the value of data as a currency in the cybercriminal underworld, how attackers are sharpening their social engineering tactics, and much more. Armed with these insights, you'll be better equipped to defend your organization.
Malware’s primary focus: data theft
Most malware aimed at smaller businesses is focused on data theft, with password stealers, keyboard loggers, and other spyware accounting for nearly half of detected malware.
The Sophos 2024 Threat Report covers these and other malware distribution mechanisms now in use, which range from phishing to malvertising and SEO poisoning. It also identifies the most common vulnerabilities attackers exploit and how the threat landscape is changing.
In this report, you’ll discover:
- Which attack vectors were most prominent in 2023
- The main categories of malware in use and what they target
- Which ransomware derivatives pose the biggest threat to small businesses
- The latest social engineering threats
- The most vulnerable platforms, applications, and document formats
- How malware delivery mechanisms are shifting
- Which legitimate software utilities and tools bad actors are exploiting to gain access to confidential data
- Industry and law enforcement progress with combating cybercrime-as-a-service
Check out these and other topics covered in the Sophos 2024 Threat Report:
Top cybersecurity challenges
Methods hackers use to steal corporate data and credentials, including the most common malware categories and incidents of ransomware.
The latest social engineering tricks
How spammers are getting creative to evade conventional email controls.
Dual-use tools
Which legitimate software utilities and tools bad actors are exploiting to access confidential data.
Shifting methods of distributing malware
How changes to default security protocols have driven hackers to target different file attachment types—and what they are.
Strides with combating cybercrime
The impact of improvements in platform security and takedown operations, by both industry and law enforcement, on malware-as-a-service success rates.
Zero-day attacks
Vulnerabilities and exploits that most challenged corporate cyber defenders in 2023.
How Sophos Is Keeping Up in 2024
Real-time threat intelligence, Sophos X-Ops threat response specialists, and world-leading AI with deep learning capabilities enable Sophos to continually evolve its protections against the latest criminal activities. The Sophos 2024 Threat Report provides key insights that help organizations and security practitioners defend against threats old and new, including ransomware groups and services designed to launch multiple malware attacks and steal information.
Cybersecurity Delivered
Sophos is a worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity and protects more than 600,000 organizations and millions of consumers in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyberthreats. Sophos delivers a broad portfolio of advanced security services and products to protect corporations and individuals against a wide range of cyberattacks.