More cyberattackers are targeting large companies with stealthier attacks, aiming to significantly disrupt businesses and force them to pay higher ransoms, according to a report summarizing more than 300 breach investigations.
The "CrowdStrike Services Cyber Front Lines Report" found that 36% of incidents aimed to disrupt business or operations. While companies are getting better at detecting attacks using their own people and systems —79% of attackers were discovered internally, the highest rate in three years — the number of days attackers went undetected increased to 95, up from 85 days in 2018, CrowdStrike found.
The result is that malicious attackers have more time to attack operations and cause more disruption, says Thomas Etheridge, vce president of services at CrowdStrike.
"Not all of these threat actors are deploying ransomware, but they were really focused on disrupting the business' ability to perform business," he says. "That disruption was behind higher ransom amounts and the decision to often pay the ransom."
The report's findings highlight how last year's steady beat of ransomware headlines became a trend. From the coordinated attacks on Texas towns to a focus on local school districts, reports of ransomware attacks exploded in 2019. While successful attacks have decreased in number by some accounts, attackers are focusing on larger targets and threatening to do greater damage. Called "big-game hunting" by many firms, the revised strategy is about minimizing effort and maximizing the profit from criminal activity.
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