Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

By : Tim Rains
3 (2)
Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

3 (2)
By: Tim Rains

Overview of this book

Tim Rains is Microsoft's former Global Chief Security Advisor and Amazon Web Services’ former Global Security Leader for Worldwide Public Sector. He has spent the last two decades advising private and public sector organizations all over the world on cybersecurity strategies. Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies, Second Edition builds upon the success of the first edition that has helped so many aspiring CISOs, and cybersecurity professionals understand and develop effective data-driven cybersecurity strategies for their organizations. In this edition, you’ll examine long-term trends in vulnerability disclosures and exploitation, regional differences in malware infections and the socio-economic factors that underpin them, and how ransomware evolved from an obscure threat to the most feared threat in cybersecurity. You’ll also gain valuable insights into the roles that governments play in cybersecurity, including their role as threat actors, and how to mitigate government access to data. The book concludes with a deep dive into modern approaches to cybersecurity using the cloud. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of the threat landscape, how to recognize good Cyber Threat Intelligence, and how to measure the effectiveness of your organization's cybersecurity strategy.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
13
Other Books You May Enjoy
14
Index

The Evolution of Ransomware

Ransomware. The very word strikes fear into CISOs, security teams, and business leaders everywhere. An encounter with ransomware could be an extinction event for many organizations, particularly those that have not adequately prepared for such an encounter. The thought of critical data being encrypted or destroyed and the necessity of paying a lofty ransom to get access to the data again from criminals, isn’t how security teams or the businesses they support typically want to spend their time.

Figure 4.22 illustrates that the ER for malware was typically the lowest of any category of malware over a period of years. Figure 4.23 shows us that the ER for ransomware was a fraction of 1% quarter after quarter between 2013 and 2016. Was it just a slow time for purveyors of ransomware? What about some of the headlines I’ve seen over the years, such as, “1,000% Increase in Ransomware”? This headline could be true because 1,000% increase...