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Netwrix reports on enterprise cyber attacks

The enterprise sector is suffering more ransomware and other malware attacks compared to smaller organizations according to Netwrix’s (www.netwrix.com) 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report - Additional Findings for the Enterprise Sector.

According to the survey, 65% of organizations in the enterprise sector suffered a cyberattack within the last 12 months, which is similar to the results among companies of all sizes (68%).  The most common security incidents are also the same: phishing, ransomware, and user account compromise.
 
However, larger organizations are a more frequent target for ransomware or other malware attacks: 48% of enterprises experienced this type of security incident on premises, compared to 37% among organizations of all sizes.  Malware attacks are less common in the cloud: just 21% of respondents in the enterprise sector experienced one within the last 12 months.
 
“It is no surprise that the enterprise sector suffers malware attacks at a higher rate than smaller organizations.  After all, ransomware operators want to maximize their profits, so they consider which organizations are most able to pay a ransom to reduce business downtime – and the larger an organization is, the costlier an operational disruption will be,” says Dmitry Sotnikov, Vice President of Product Management, Netwrix.  “On the other hand, larger organizations have more tools to spot the attack that might stay unnoticed for SMBs.  In addition, enterprises have bigger infrastructure with more endpoints that statistically increases the chance of the security incident.”
 
The enterprise sector also reports larger expenses because of cyberattacks than their smaller counterparts, with 28% of enterprises estimating that the financial damage from cyberthreats to their organization exceeds $50,000, compared to just 16% among organizations overall.
 
“Smaller companies often underestimate their risk of attack, reasoning that cybercriminals tend to target enterprises because they store more intellectual property (IP) and other sensitive data.  But our survey shows that organizations suffer cyberattacks with a similar frequency regardless of their size,” warns Dirk Schrader, Vice President of Security Research, Netwrix.  “Every organization has valuable data, such as customer and employee information, and is therefore a target for attackers.  What’s more, small and medium sized businesses are not only a target on their own but as a way into the larger enterprises that consume their services.”

A copy of Netwrix’s 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report - Additional Findings for the Enterprise Sector can be found at https://www.netwrix.com/download/documents/Netwrix_Hybrid_Security_Trends_Report_2023_Enterprise_Sector.pdf.