Cisco has published its DNS Security Report, which analyses malicious DNS activity and threats that occurred between January and December of last year. The report examines data from Cisco Umbrella, the company’s cloud-based network security platform, finding that cryptomining malware affected a vast majority of customers in 2020, generating substantial amounts of malicious DNS traffic, while taking up precious computing resources.
During a year in which security issues have become essential for all to tackle, DNS Threat Analysis, which processes 620 billion global DNS requests daily, found that from January – December 2020 nearly 90% of organisations had at least one user attempt to connect to a phishing site, most likely by clicking a link in an email. Among the DNS activity findings: users in 70% of organisations got malicious browser ads. Furthermore, 51% of organisations encountered ransomware-related activity. Another 48% found information-stealing malware activity.
Commenting on the report, Fady Younes, cybersecurity director, Middle East and Africa, Cisco said: “In today’s threat landscape, the idea that ‘no one is an island’ holds true for threats. The most prevalent attacks these days leverage a variety of threats at different stages. If you find one threat within your network, it’s wise to investigate what threats have been observed working in tandem with it and take precautionary measures to prevent them from causing further havoc.”
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