Must-Read Cyble Research Reports of 2024: Trends and Key Takeaways

Of the many reports created by Cyble’s talented team of threat researchers this year, seven stand out for their unique and comprehensive insight into the contemporary threat landscape.

We’ll examine some of the key takeaways from the reports, including the changing nature of cyber threats and some surprising solutions readers may not have considered.

Here, then, are insights from seven key Cyble research reports from 2024 that you shouldn’t miss, from broad trends to sector-specific threats that affect us all.

Brand Impersonation and Counterfeit Products

E-Commerce and Brand Monitoring examines the underappreciated risks of counterfeit products and brand impersonation. It includes statistics and case studies that should disturb companies and consumers alike.

Two data points underscore the risks for everyone: 70% of consumers have unknowingly purchased counterfeit products online within the last year, and the average company loses almost $4 billion a year in sales because of counterfeit products.

The report examines the most targeted sectors and methods – and discusses detection technologies, solutions, and actions that can help address the problem.

How Threat Intelligence Became a Core Security Technology

The Year in Cyber Threat Intelligence is a comprehensive look at threat intelligence’s emergence as a central cybersecurity technology, including eight mergers that have remade the sector and revealed its strategic importance even for established security vendors.

The leading threat intelligence platforms have evolved into external attack surface management (EASM) solutions that address risks from the network perimeter to the cloud and beyond. Harnessing AI and vast computing resources, these solutions power a growth rate that’s more than twice as fast as the cybersecurity market as a whole.

Along the way, you’ll get insights into threat intelligence use and features you might not know about, including a few practices that can prevent major cyberattacks before they happen.

Healthcare’s Tough Year

Healthcare cyber incidents in 2024 got bigger and more dramatic than ever before, with crippling ransomware attacks and massive data breaches becoming all too common.

Cyble’s mid-year Healthcare Threat Landscape report looks at incidents from the first half of 2024 – and draws important big-picture inferences and trends from the data. One critical insight: Dark web monitoring is an underappreciated tool for detecting credentials, access, and data leaks before they become much bigger cyberattacks and issues.

The report looks at 10 cases where healthcare access credentials were offered for sale on the dark web. Such breaches can be an important indicator of future attacks for any organization, but they can be particularly dangerous in the healthcare sector. The report also looks at vulnerabilities, data exposures, and ransomware attacks that hit the sector this year.

Medical Device Insecurity

A second healthcare report from Cyble is also worth reading for its insights into the unique systems, devices and challenges that make healthcare security so difficult – and breaches so expensive. In fact, healthcare data breaches are more than 50% more expensive than breaches in any other industry.

Vulnerability Management in Healthcare IoT Devices reveals why healthcare security is so difficult, with a sprawling array of unsupported and insecure devices providing critical patient care – as well as ready access for hackers. Here are some of the disturbing data points from the report:

• 75% of infusion pumps have unpatched security flaws.
• 83% of medical imaging systems run on unsupported operating systems.
• 98% of medical IoT device network traffic is unencrypted.
• Over 50% of hospital IoT devices are vulnerable to attack.
• Medical IoT devices were the root cause of 21% of all ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector.
• Only 52% of companies conduct regular security audits for healthcare IoT devices.

You’ll come away from this report with new insight into healthcare security challenges – along with potential solutions.

Software Supply Chain Risks and Controls

Software supply chain attacks have become a near-daily occurrence, and attacks that come through trusted partners are particularly dangerous because of their privileged access to an organization’s data and environment.

Cyble’s Supply Chain Threats report looked at the many ways that supply chain attacks and vulnerabilities can occur, along with an extensive list of security controls organizations can use to reduce those risks.

The use of open-source components in commercial software adds to those risks, creating an opening for malicious packages and open-source vulnerabilities to enter the commercial supply chain.

As any IT vulnerability from a trusted supplier could be considered a supply chain risk, the section on controls is particularly important. A must for understanding our increasingly interconnected threat landscape.

Financial Cybersecurity

The financial sector was covered in multiple Cyble reports this year, but one stands out above the rest: Cyber Threat Intelligence for Financial Institutions is an exhaustive look at the threats facing financial services companies – along with solutions.

The nearly 5,000-word report enumerates the attack types, vulnerabilities, targets, regions, and threat groups that place the industry at high risk of attack – along with what to expect for threats, controls, and regulatory and compliance pressures in 2025. A must-read for anyone who depends on this vital engine of economic growth.

Transportation Security

The Transportation and Logistics report examines the vast cybersecurity risks that threaten to disrupt transportation and shipping – risks that have grown substantially with automation and AI.

The report looks at the specific vulnerabilities, threat groups, and hacktivists that target the transportation sector, along with the attack types the industry faces.

The report examines eight technologies that can help mitigate those risks. You’ll gain a greater appreciation for the many physical and geopolitical risks that transportation services must negotiate while getting people and goods to their intended destinations.

What’s Next from Cyble Threat Researchers?

In addition to regular reports on sector-specific and general threats, Cyble also publishes comprehensive monthly, semi-annual, and annual reports on the threat landscape that are available for free download. Cyble’s annual threat landscape report will be published in January in the Research Reports section – and will include predictions for 2025.

Cyble’s reports and blogs – along with thousands of daily bulletins sent to threat intelligence subscribers – offer critical, reasoned judgments and insights from seasoned threat researchers into the threats and vulnerabilities meriting priority attention, along with creative solutions to those challenges.

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