Cybercriminals use a variety of techniques and attacks. Sometimes they want to be seen, they want to cause demonstrative damage, for example in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on websites. Sometimes they want to distract attention from other attacks or just to test their skills, show their strength and make headlines.

“The cybercrime industry proved to be a well-oiled machine this year – relying on proven attack techniques, like phishing, malware, DDoS, and others,” says Candid Wuest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research.

As reliance on the cloud increases, as does the associated cyber risk. To meet this changing landscape and avoid a damaging attack, businesses must invest in the right tools to defend the new threat surface.

“While some bots like search engine crawlers are good, our research shows that a much larger number of bots are dedicated to carrying out malicious activities at scale,” said NitzanMiron, VP, Application Security, Barracuda.

2020 was an extraordinary year and, if nothing else, the last 18 months have certainly accentuated the importance of digital resiliency. Now, as we move into a recovery phase post pandemic, our own research, undertaken earlier this year, highlighted that the workforce won’t return to pre-COVID working practices, and that we should expect a hybrid approach to the office environment.