Massive cyberattacks were launched last year by governments in more than 120 countries, Microsoft’s annual Digital Defence Report has revealed. During the same period, the IT giant thwarted 237 billion password theft attempts, protecting millions of users around the world from the threat of cybercrime.
The Digital Defence Report provides the latest insights on how the threat landscape has evolved but also the mechanisms developed to deal with geopolitical cyberattacks and cybercrime.
“We believe every individual and company around the world should be empowered to meet its security needs. Achieving this will require a collective global effort as we harness the power of partnership to strengthen our defences together,” Tom Burt, corporate vice president of Customer Security & Trust at Microsoft, said.
“Close collaboration between the public and private sectors to formulate, enforce and harmonise these requirements is therefore crucial to improve global cybersecurity and foster innovation. In fact, while cybercriminals have remained hard at work, we are seeing public and private sectors come together to disrupt the technologies criminals use, hold them to account, and support the victims of cybercrime,” he added.
While AI is transforming cybersecurity, using it to stay ahead of threats requires massive amounts of diverse data. Microsoft’s more than 10,000 security experts analyse over 65 trillion signals each day with the help of AI, and Microsoft Threat Intelligence teams track hundreds of threat actor groups worldwide.
Microsoft’s security ecosystem includes more than 15,000 security partners with specialised solutions, while the global open community of security researchers and testers contribute to bug bounties and security challenges. This broad, deep and diverse security ecosystem is driving some of the most influential insights in cybersecurity, the company notes.
“Societies worldwide acknowledge the importance of collective action, especially in cybersecurity, as we strive for a safer world. While individual organisations focus on safeguarding their interests, collaboration is a powerful force multiplier. Partnerships involving government agencies, businesses, academia, non-profits and others are essential for robust cyber defences,” Burt said.
Societies worldwide acknowledge the importance of collective action, especially in cybersecurity, as we strive for a safer world
Microsoft’s report explains that to understand the need for collaboration, one must consider the concept of a “cyber poverty line” which defines the minimum resources needed for adequate cyber protection.
“Defining and addressing this line requires cooperation among stakeholders because no single tech company can solve all cybersecurity challenges. This necessitates partnerships that span public and private sectors, policy groups, and standards bodies and involve building safer technology, sharing threat intelligence, setting common standards, and countering cybercriminal tools,” Burt underlined.
“Basically, there needs to be a collaboration to push innovation boundaries and integrate security products for end-to-end protection.”
The study points out how stakeholders must recognise their shared responsibility and actively engage in partnerships to enhance cybersecurity.
“History shows that working together can create a safer digital future. Non-profits, academia and research institutions are vital in advancing cybersecurity as they bridge theory and practical application, contribute to research, innovate, and educate future professionals. Collaborative projects between academia, non-profits and industry promote innovation and address emerging threats.”
Microsoft’s report also shares insights on newly observed ransomware and extortion tactics and trends and how the number of human-operated ransomware attacks were up by more than 200 per cent since September 2022.
“The good news is, for organisations with a strong security posture, the likelihood of an attack succeeding is very low. Typically, an attack is stopped in the pre-ransom phase, with on average two per cent of attacks progressing to a successful ransomware deployment,” Burt said.
“Approximately 40 per cent of the ransomware encounters we detected in June were human-driven. Most of these attacks can be attributed to 123 tracked ransomware-as-a-service affiliates. The number of affiliates grew by 12 per cent in the last year, setting up conditions for human-operated ransomware attacks to continue to grow in 2024.”