Less than half of businesses are confident against cyberthreats

According to Cisco’s 2016 Annual Security Report, a majority (92%) of executives agreed that regulators and investors expect companies to manage cybersecurity risk exposure. This means companies are increasing measures to secure their organization, particularly as they digitize operations. The report noted that cybercriminals make USD 34 million per year on ransomware alone.

Between 2014 and 2015, the number of organizations that said their security infrastructure was up-to-date dropped by 10%. The survey discovered that 92% of internet devices are running known vulnerabilities. Almost one-third (31%) of all devices analysed are no longer supported or maintained by the vendor. The number of SMBs that used web security dropped more than 10% in the year, indicating potential risk to enterprises due to structural weaknesses. SMBs are improving their security approach in part by outsourcing, up to 23% in 2015 from 14% in 2014.

The study unveils how online criminals have shifted to compromised servers, such as those for WordPress, to support their attacks, leveraging social media platforms for nefarious purposes. While often viewed by security teams as a low-level threat, malicious browser extensions are also a potential source of major data leaks, affecting more than 85% of organizations.

Adware, malvertising, and even common websites or obituary columns have led to breaches for those who do not regularly update their software. Nearly 92% of known bad malware was found to use DNS as a key capability.