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SonicWall Report: Nearly 6B Malware Attacks in First Half of 2018

Malware volume, ransomware attacks, encrypted threats and chip-based cyberattacks increased in the first six months of 2018, according to cybersecurity research conducted by endpoint and network security solutions provider SonicWall.

Key findings from SonicWall's "2018 Cyber Threat Report" included:

  • More than 5.99 billion malware attacks were recorded during the first half of 2018, up 102 percent year over year.
  • There were more than 181.5 million ransomware attacks in the first six months of 2018, which represents a 229 percent year-over-year increase.
  • Encrypted attacks rose 275 percent year over year in the first half of 2018.

SonicWall Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI) technology has been used to identify more than 12,300 malware variants thus far in 2018, the company indicated. In addition, RTDMI has helped organizations detect and block unknown mass-market malware, including malicious PDFs and attacks leveraging Microsoft Office documents.

What Is RTDMI?

RTDMI was unveiled in February and enables Capture Cloud Platform users to discover malware strands that often go undetected by sandboxing technology, according to SonicWall. It detects and blocks malware that does not exhibit any malicious behavior and hides its weaponry via custom encryption and resolves cyberattacks where weaponry is exposed for less than 100 nanoseconds.

In addition, RTDMI identifies and mitigates modern cyber threats, including Spectre and Meltdown exploits, SonicWall indicated. It also provides automated breach detection and prevention to SonicWall's partners and customers.

Introducing New Capture Cloud Products and Solutions

SonicWall last month unveiled 12 new Capture Cloud products and solutions, including:

  • Capture Client: Enables security administrators to query known verdicts for suspicious files on endpoints and servers and whitelist applications to avoid false positives.
  • Capture Security Center: Allows an organization to manage its security ecosystem from the cloud.
  • Cloud App Security: Delivers visibility and control of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications being used by employees, promotes secure app usage and reduces the risk of shadow IT.
  • Next-Generation Firewalls: Use machine learning security technologies to safeguard organizations against ransomware, zero-day attacks and other cyber threats.

Capture Cloud integrates next-generation endpoint, firewall and cloud application security with management, reporting, analytics and cyber threat visibility, according to SonicWall. By doing so, Capture Cloud helps organizations protect their networks, email, endpoints and mobile and remote users against cyberattacks.

What Is SonicWall?

SonicWall offers breach detection and prevention solutions to more than 500,000 organizations worldwide. It collaborates with over 26,000 channel partners and supports customers in over 200 countries and territories.

Furthermore, SonicWall in May recapped the company and now operates as a standalone business. SonicWall also has surpassed its financial objectives for six consecutive quarters and recorded a 90-plus percent customer renewal rate in the first quarter of 2018.

Dan Kobialka

Dan Kobialka is senior contributing editor, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. He covers IT security, IT service provider business strategies and partner programs. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State University. In his free time, Dan enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football.