TRENDING

“ OverWatch threat hunting data demonstrates how adversaries are keenly attuned to their victim ’ s environment and ready to pivot to meet changing objectives or emerging opportunities .

“ For this reason , organizations must implement a layered defense system that incorporates basic security hygiene , endpoint detection and response ( EDR ), expert threat hunting , strong passwords and employee education to properly defend their environments .”

Some of the notable report findings include :

• First half of 2020 hands-on-keyboard intrusion activity surpasses all of 2019 : OverWatch observed an explosion in hands-on-keyboard intrusions in the first half of 2020 that has already surpassed the total seen throughout all of 2019 . This significant increase is driven primarily by the continued acceleration of e-crime activity but has also been impacted by the effects of the pandemic , which presented an expanded attack surface as organizations rapidly adopted remote workforces and created opportunities for adversaries to exploit public fear through COVID-19 themed social engineering strategies .

• E-crime continues to increase in volume and reach : Sophisticated e-crime activity continues to outpace state-sponsored activity , an upward trend that OverWatch has witnessed over the past three years , accounting for over 80 % of interactive intrusions . This does not indicate a reduction in nation-state activity , but rather reflects the extraordinary success threat actors have seen with targeted intrusions using ransomware and Ransomwareas-a-Service ( RaaS ) models , which have contributed to a proliferation of activity from a wider array of e-crime actors .

• Targeting of the manufacturing sector increases dramatically : There was a sharp escalation of activity in the manufacturing sector in the first half of

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