• by Ray Schultz , February 28, 2020

Retailers were hit with a growing number of cyber attacks during the recent holiday season, according to Mimecast’s latest Threat Intelligence Report.

Retail targets accounted for almost a third of the significant criminal activity. This was to be expected, given heavy shopping by consumers, but it remains a daunting challenge for brands.

In general, the cyber campaigns increasingly delivered the Emotet “dropper” banking malware via DOC and DOCX formats.

In general, email security firm Mimecast identified 61 malicious campaigns, a 145% hike over the prior quarter, even though the firm analyzed fewer emails.

Threat actors are moving from impersonation attacks to ransomware.

In addition to the retail and wholesale sector, popular targets included legal firms, software & SAAS, banking and manufacturing.

“It’s no surprise that threat actors are using a combination of simplistic and sophisticated attacks to gain access to organizations,” states Josh Douglas, vice president of threat intelligence at Mimecast.

Douglas adds:“That’s also likely why we saw such a huge spike in the recently dormant Emotet campaign — they’re attempting to gain as much attack space as possible to land other sophisticated attacks or hold organizations hostage,” said