Acronis #CyberFit Summit Dubai opens today, gathers world-class experts

DUBAI, UAE, December 8, 2021 - Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection, today starts its #CyberFit Summit Dubai - the third stop in the Acronis World Tour, an ongoing industry event series dedicated to bringing cyber protection to businesses everywhere. Marking the start of the event, the company has released its annual Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022, an in-depth review of cybersecurity trends and threats worldwide. The report warns that managed service providers (MSPs) are particularly at risk - having more of their own management tools, such as PSA or RMM, used against them by cybercriminals, and thus are becoming increasingly vulnerable to supply chain attacks.

Supply-chain attacks on MSPs are particularly devastating, since attackers gain access to both their business and clients - as seen in the SolarWinds breach last year and the Kaseya VSA attack earlier in 2021, one successful attack means crippling hundreds or thousands of SMBs. The report also shows that during the second half of 2021, only 20% of companies reported not having been attacked - as opposed to 32% last year - indicating that attacks are increasing in frequency across the board.

"The cybercrime industry is a well-oiled machine, using cloud and machine intelligence to scale and automate their operations. While the threat landscape continues to grow, we see that the main attack vectors stay the same - and they still work," says Candid Wuest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research. "While the attack surface is growing and 2022 will surely bring us surprises, cyber protection automation remains the only path to greater security, reduced risks, lower costs, and improved efficiency."

Beyond the growing efficiency of cybercriminals and the impact on MSPs and small businesses, the Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022 shows:

Overall, in terms of cybersecurity, this year was the worst on record; not just for many organizations, but for many countries as well - including the UAE, a country now pushing to fight the global "cyber pandemic." And despite their best effort, as Acronis' own recent survey shows, 25% of people in UAE still do not use any cyber protection tools.

Malware attacks remain a global phenomenon, and every country has to fight it. Reviewing the normalized malware detection in our research, we saw countries like Taiwan, Singapore, China, and Brazil with over a 50% detection rate. However, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region also ranks fairly high on the list, with the UAE at 38%; South Africa at 36%; and Saudi Arabia at 29%.

We see similar statistics for blocked ransomware attacks: the UAE ranked 33^rd globally, responsible for 0.3% of all global detections - a 63% increase from Oct 2021 - while South Africa ranked 30^th globally, responsible for 0.4% of all detections - a 64% increase from October, 2021.

While ransomware attacks are clearly on the rise in MEA, the high malware detection rates could mean that countries are paying more attention to cyber protection by upgrading their detection capabilities.

The Acronis #CyberFit Summit taking place as a hybrid event in Dubai, UAE on December 8^th─9^th aims to help local organizations and citizens build up their cyberdefences. The platform engages world-class cybersecurity and industry experts, and provides an in-depth look at how companies can enhance their IT infrastructure capabilities - with a particular focus on MSPs, the backbone of channel business.

Acronis is also using this platform to pre-announce the opening of two data centers in Africa - Nigeria and South Africa - opening in Q2 2022, helping to fulfill the company's ongoing plan of building 110 data centres worldwide within two years.

The full report provides in-depth insights into the top cybersecurity and threat trends the CPOCs observed during the second half of 2021; a review of malware families and related statistics; a deep dive into ransomware's most dangerous groups; the vulnerabilities that contribute to successful attacks; and Acronis' security recommendations for 2022 and beyond. Check out the findings for the first half of 2021 in our Acronis Cyberthreats Report: Mid-year 2021.

You can download a copy of the full Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022 here.