Intelligent CIO North America Issue 01 | Page 23

TRENDING LATEST MIMECAST RESEARCH FINDS THREAT ACTORS MORE MOTIVATED BY MONEY THAN INTELLIGENCE OR IP Analysis of 92 billion rejected emails finds certain verticals have been repeatedly targeted during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Mimecast Limited, a leading email security and cyber-resilience company, has launched the Threat Intelligence Report: Black Hat U.S.A. Edition 2020. The report provides technical analysis of United States targeted attacks that attempted to infiltrate the security environment of Mimecast customers. Two main trends ran throughout the analysis: the desire for attacker’s monetary gain and a continued reliance on COVID-19-related campaigns, especially within certain vertical industries. One of the most significant observations was that threat actors are launching opportunistic and malware-based campaigns across multiple verticals at volumes at an alarming rate. The report also forecasts what types of attacks will likely spike in the next six months and offers recommendations on how to help organizations become more secure and resilient. A sign of the times The majority of attacks seen by the Mimecast Threat Center during this period were simple, high volume forms of attacks, such as spam and phishing that is likely a reflection of the ease of access to tools and kits available online. As the attacks progressed, exploits evolved to more potent forms of malware and ransomware with the attacker’s goal appearing to be monetary gain. “ THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF MIMECAST’S THREAT INTELLIGENCE REPORTS ARE TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS BETTER UNDERSTAND TODAY’S THREAT LANDSCAPE. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 23