Oct. 28— The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) recently released the ENISA Threat Landscape report (ETL), which indicates that the biggest threat to online security in the last 15 months is not what you might expect…It’s not the mass transition to remote work and all that it entails, nor is it ransomware, although ransomware is not unrelated. Rather, hackers-for-hire represented the largest threat to online security across the past fifteen months, as Reuters reports.

ENISA and hackers-for-hire study findings

ENISA conducted a study from April of 2020 to July of 2021 in order to help federal agencies and private sector firms better understand cyber security threats and possible solutions. While high profile ransomware attacks occurred across that timeframe, making international headlines, the availability and interest of competent hackers remains at the heart of the issue.

Nonetheless, ransomware represents a ‘prime threat’ faced by modern businesses. During the study’s reporting period, ransomware attacks increased by 150% and some experts suggest that the problem may worsen before a satisfactory resolution is found.

Says ENISA, “We are observing the golden era of ransomware – it has become a national security problem and some argue that it has not yet reached the peak of its impact.”

Other study findings

ENISA’s recent report also cited cryptojacking -the practice of leveraging a person’s computer to generate cryptocurrency- misinformation and disinformation among growing cyber threats.

In summary

ENISA’s study findings suggest that organizations should develop strong cyber security attack mitigation strategies. Organizations may also wish to ensure that they have applied the latest patches, implemented multi-factor authentication, and zero-trust access policies.

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