Some of the world’s most skilled nation-state cyber adversaries and notorious ransomware gangs are deploying an arsenal of new open-sourced tools, actively exploiting corporate email systems and using online extortion to scare victims into paying ransoms, according to the 2020 Cyberthreatscape Report from Accenture.
Leveraging Accenture’s cyberthreat intelligence (CTI) capabilities, the report – which Accenture Security produces annually – examines the tactics, techniques and procedures employed by some of the most sophisticated cyber adversaries and explores how cyber incidents could evolve over the next year. The report includes research contributions from Context Information Security and Deja vu Security, which Accenture acquired in March 2020 and June 2019, respectively. Those acquisitions built on several others this year – including Symantec’s Cybersecurity Services business and Revolutionary Security – demonstrating Accenture’s continued commitment to scaling its cybersecurity services for clients.
“Since COVID-19 radically shifted the way we work and live, we’ve seen a wide range of cyber adversaries changing their tactics to take advantage of new vulnerabilities,” said Josh Ray, who leads Accenture Security’s Cyber Defence Practice globally. “The biggest takeaway from our research is that organisations should expect cybercriminals to become more brazen as the potential opportunities and pay-outs from these campaigns climb to the stratosphere. In such a climate, organisations need to double down on putting the right controls in place and by leveraging reliable cyberthreat intelligence to understand and expel the most complex threats.”
