Several years ago, the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world, forcing companies worldwide to adopt remote work. Many companies even made this move a permanent feature of their business models. However, changes in IT infrastructure brought about by remote work, such as a move to cloud solutions, also shifted the focus of cyberattacks.
According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, cloud servers are now the number one way in for cyberattacks, with 41% of companies reporting it as the first point of entry — a 10% increase from the year before. Cloud servers have replaced corporate-owned servers, the leading attack vector in 2021.
The data is based on the Cyber Readiness Report 2022 by insurance firm Hiscox. Data for the report was collected via a survey with 5,181 professionals from eight countries responsible for their organization’s cybersecurity strategy. The survey was conducted between 30 November 2021 and 21 January 2022.
The top cyberattack vector in 2021, corporate-owned servers, now occupies the third spot on the list. According to the 2022 survey results, 37% of businesses reported them as the main cyberattack entry method. The second spot belongs to the business emails. They were named as the main access point for attackers by 40% of businesses.
Other common entry methods include remote access servers (RAS) at 31%, employee-owned mobile devices at 29% — 6% rise from the year before, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks at 26%.