Trend Micro, provider of cybersecurity solutions, announces in its Annual Cybersecurity Report that Trend Micro security systems detected and blocked malicious activity 161 billion times last year. The study also shows that cybercriminals are becoming more targeted, evolving their ransomware tactics and becoming more sophisticated.

The two most common cyber risks identified by Trend Micro's systems are potentially dangerous cloud applications and access to dangerous websites. Companies should therefore urgently keep an eye on their cloud environments, according to Trend Micro. Germany ranks sixth among the countries most frequently affected by malware worldwide. In a European comparison, Germany is in second place for both total malware (around 226 million) and email threats (around 1.1 billion). Germany even appears to be the most popular target in the EU for ransomware actors: Among all member states, the largest number of ransomware threats (around 243,000) was detected in Germany - almost twice as many as in France.

Targeting government facilities and critical infrastructure

Government institutions and authorities were the main focus of cybercriminals in 2023. In the public sector, Trend Micro detected and blocked the most malware campaigns worldwide (more than 302,000 unique detections), followed by the healthcare sector (around 228,000) and manufacturing companies (around 212,000). In Germany, the critical sectors of energy (around 22,000) and healthcare (around 12,000) are at the top of the malware statistics, with government institutions in fifth place among malware targets (around 4,000).

Ransomware attacks primarily target the financial sector

In terms of ransomware campaigns, however, the financial sector leads the field worldwide by some distance (around 20,000 blocked individual attacks). It was attacked almost twice as often as government institutions with almost 10,000 blocked cases in second place. The technology sector follows with just under 7,700 detected threats. In Germany, the healthcare sector (around 450 attacks stopped) and production (around 250) are particularly affected by ransomware. Security managers in these sectors should therefore be particularly vigilant this year.

Cyber criminals focus on quality over quantity

Richard Werner, IT security expert at Trend Micro: "Fast, holistic attack detection across all vectors of the IT environment is just as essential as continuous cyber risk management, as prescribed by the upcoming NIS2 directive."

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Trend Micro also reports positive news: there were fewer detections in the area of email and websites, but the number of malicious files blocked increased. Instead of widespread spam attacks with malicious links, they are developing more targeted campaigns for specific victim groups. One of the most popular tactics used by cyber criminals is "living off the land": cyber criminals misuse legitimate tools and processes that already exist on the victim system for their activities. They are thus well camouflaged and sail under the radar of security solutions.

Richard Werner, IT security expert at Trend Micro, explains: "Our Annual Cybersecurity Report shows why security teams are under considerable pressure. As cybercriminals evolve their tactics, companies need to sharpen their security concepts."

The Annual Cybersecurity Report

The complete Trend Micro 2023 Annual Cybersecurity Report is available here.