“Last quarter saw the highest level of zero day malware detections we’ve ever recorded. Evasive malware rates have actually eclipsed those of traditional threats, which is yet another sign that organisations need to evolve their defences to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threat actors,” said Corey Nachreiner, chief security officer at WatchGuard.
“Traditional anti-malware solutions alone are simply insufficient for today’s threat environment. Every organisation needs a layered, proactive security strategy that involves machine learning and behavioural analysis to detect and block new and advanced threats.”
WatchGuard’s Q1 2021 Internet Security Report also found attackers are trying to disguise and repurpose old exploits and the quarter’s top malware attacks. During this period, WatchGuard blocked a total of more than 17.2 million malware variants (461 per device) and nearly 4.2 million network threats (113 per device).
The company’s quarterly research reports are based on anonymised Firebox Feed data from active WatchGuard Fireboxes whose owners have opted in to share data to support the Threat Lab’s research efforts. You can read the full findings here.