Know your enemy

Protecting against the top threats of 2020

In 2019, threat traffic increased by

50x

To defend against all these threats, both today and tomorrow, first you need to understand them.

We’re dealing with threats like never before

Top 5 threats

A malicious program that hacks into a system by misleading users of its true intent.

Trojans

Appropriating another user’s computing power to generate cryptocurrency.

Malicious
Cryptomining

Malware that covertly attacks a user’s computer, then demands a ransom payment to rectify the issue.

Ransomware

Obtaining sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity.

Phishing

Bundled software users are fooled into installing along with a desired program.

Spyware

Just how hard are these threats hitting?

Every week, our customers see domains that link to threats:

88%

see
malware
traffic

59%

see
trojan
traffic

56%

see
cryptomining
traffic

46%

see
phishing
traffic

Who are these threats affecting most?

58.29%

North America

4.30%

Latin America

26.30%

Europe
Middle East
Africa

10.47%

Asia Pacific
Japan
China

Higher Education

22.66%

*All Other Industries

31.25%

Financial Services

22.56%

Manager Service Providers

14.80%

Manufacturing

8.75%

Other Industries

31.25%

Small businesses (<1,000 employees)

32.60%

Mid-sized businesses (1,000-9,999 employees)

13.64%

Large businesses (>10,000 employees)

54.09%

experience threatening queries

Where are threats headed next?

Over the past year, Umbrella tracked a significant increase in threat traffic.

3.5x

malware

2.5x

command and control
callbacks to botnets

2x

ransomware

1.7x

phishing

We expect these threats will only continue to trend upward in 2020 and beyond.

Remote work:
A growing frontier for threats

The recent rise in remote work means more employees rely on email and web tools to communicate. If these users bypass the VPN, this can lead to DNS blind spots, which provide cybercriminals with new opportunities for harvesting credentials, phishing, authorizing fraudulent wire transfers, and deploying ransomware.

Phishing, ransomware, C2 callbacks —
they all first strike at the domain level. Cisco Umbrella offers DNS-layer protection, acting as the first line of defense against all of these threats.

When it comes to protecting at the DNS layer, Cisco Umbrella blocks twice as many threats as competitors

With security built into the foundation of the internet’s infrastructure, Cisco
Umbrella allows for greater accuracy and better detection of compromised
systems, improving visibility and protection.

72.6%*

Cisco
Umbrella *with selective proxy

35.3%

Infoblox BloxOne

26.5%

Akamai
Enterprise Threat
Protector

13.7%

Palo Alto
Networks
Next-Generation
Firewall

Side-by-side comparison of threats blocked by DNS-layer solutions

The toughest threats demand
the toughest protection

By analyzing and learning from internet activity patterns, Cisco Umbrella automatically
uncovers — and blocks — all of the top threats, both today and tomorrow, so you can
protect your users, data, and apps.

Learn more about emerging threats in our on-demand webinar.

Listen now