SonicWall recently released the 2024 SonicWall Annual Cyber Threat Report, which exposes all types of cyber behaviors and trends from digital adversaries to help partners build data-driven solutions to keep customers safe.

According to the report, the year 2023 proved to be a year of volatile, adaptive, and creative digital threats, as threat actors continue to be relentless in their assault, leaving organizations looking for another layer of defense.

Organizations are increasingly turning to Managed Service Providers to alleviate pressure on IT departments. Managed services have emerged as a game-changing solution, providing organizations with an additional human layer of defense, addressing alert fatigue, and freeing up valuable resources and time for core business functions.

“The report reveals that the threat landscape continues to grow in complexity and depth as threat actors adopt new tactics and platforms,” said SonicWall CEO Bob VanKirk. “It has become clear that conventional network security isn’t enough. Security professionals need assistance to cope with the overwhelming volume of cyberattacks and protect from the endpoint to the cloud.”

Overall intrusions numbers climbed, totaling almost one billion more attempts compared to the same time as last year. Global cryptojacking volume rose 659 percent and encrypted threat jumped 117 percent, as threat actors opted for a stealthier, less risky means of malicious activities. The data illustrates the tenacious and evolving state of cyber threats, underscoring the need for businesses to continually adapt their security strategies, and serves as a call for organizations to lean on MSPs to help identify and remediate threats quickly.

“When it comes to protecting your most valuable assets, organizations must remain alert, deploy proactive cybersecurity measures, and focus on the threats that matter,” said SonicWall Executive Vice President of Managed Security Services Michael Crean. “Today’s organizations demand an integrated approach for end-to-end managed threat protection enabling MSPs to help customers navigate the cybersecurity landscape with confidence and resilience – giving them a distinct competitive edge.”

Cybercriminals and nation-states are adapting their abilities to gain access to critical infrastructure, making the threat landscape even more complex and forcing organizations to reconsider their security needs. The second half of the year 2023 saw a barrage of ransomware activity (+27 percent) and a variety of other attacks have trended up globally annually, including IoT exploits (+15 percent), intrusion attempts (+20 percent), and encrypted threats (+117 percent).

"In an era where cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, MSPs are the frontline defense protecting their customers and helping them spend more of their time managing their business’ needs,” said CTO of Compass MSP Alex Tsukanov.

While ransomware continues to be a threat, researchers expect a broader set of actions in the year 2024, specifically targeting SMBs, governments, and enterprises.

The 2024 report provides insight on a range of threats, including Malware, Ransomware, IoTExploit, and Encrypted Threats.

Total global malware volume rose 11 percent in 2023, with Latin America and the US logging the biggest jumps – (+30 percent) and (+15 percent) respectively. Surprisingly, Europe saw a (-2 percent) decrease, with the UK seeing the steepest decline of -28 percent.

Overall ransomware numbers saw a -36 percent decline annually, the summer months and second half of the year suggest a strong rebound, as it spiked +37 percent during the summer months when compared to the same time last year.

IoT Exploit – Global volume rose 15 percent, as connected devices continue to rapidly multiply, bad actors are targeting weak points of entry as potential attack vectors into organizations.

Yet another quieter approach embraced by bad actors in the last year was encrypted threats, which spiked (+117 percent) globally.