The CSO at internet security company WatchGuard Technologies recently discussed a high-level summary of its Internet Security Report for Q4 2021, which revealed that all types of threats increased over 40 percent from the previous quarter.
When the pandemic started, observers note a big drop in malware being detected by network security devices, which suggested that as tech-based jobs moved to remote work, many employees were no longer using organizational resources to access the internet. This was likely the main reason employers' networks noted a drop in malware attacks via employee workstations. However, network attacks continued to rise through the pandemic, since the servers still lived at the offices and in the cloud, and network security still protected those.
In Q4 2021, observers noted an increase in the number of malware threats directed at the user level. Some of this may be because of the normal holiday shopping season, but most likely, the returning of workers to the office is the likely explanation for the increase in corporate detection rates. "Network attacks increased to a 3-year high" www.helpnetsecurity.com (Apr. 26, 2022).