WatchGuard's Q4 2016 Internet Security Report

Today, I am very excited to share WatchGuard's first formal Internet Security Report. For over a decade, WatchGuard's threat team has educated the general public and our customers about the latest threats, vulnerabilities, and security stories through articles, podcasts, and videos. In this new quarterly security report, we're also excited to share some quantifiable data from WatchGuard's Firebox Feed. The Firebox Feed is the name we’ve given to the anonymized threat data gathered from the tens of thousands of Firebox appliances protecting our customers around the world. It gathers data about the latest malware, network attacks, and advanced threats our products prevent, thus providing valuable insight into how criminals are targeting victims and changing their attacks. In this formal, quarterly report we'll share the top malware and network attacks we see, we'll offer technical insights into some of the biggest security incidents from each quarter, and we'll disclose findings from our Threat Lab's internal research projects. Most importantly, we'll offer practical and timely defense strategies to deal with the latest attack trends.  

Our first report covers incidents from the fourth quarter of 2016, and includes data gathered from well over 24 thousand global Firebox appliances. These Fireboxes blocked over 18 million malware infections and three million network attacks. Some of the report trends and highlights include:

• 30 percent of malware is new or “zero day”
• Old attack techniques are still relevant
• JavaScript is a popular malware delivery and obfuscation mechanism
•  73 percent of the top attacks target web browsers in drive-by download attacks
• The top network attack primarily targeted Germany

For much more detail about these and other security trends, as well as tips for how you can defend your network from the latest threats, we invite you to download and read the full report from the link below. You can also quickly learn and share some of the report's top trends and takeaways from the infographic embedded below. We hope this quarterly report provide useful by keeping you aware of the latest risks, and welcome your feedback to improve it. -- Corey Nachreiner, WatchGuard CTO, CISSP (@SecAdept)

Download the Full Report

To download the full 39 page report click here