2020 Cybersecurity Outlook Report

The conflict of “good vs. evil” is a theme that’s captivated humanity throughout history, spanning religion, ethics, philosophy, politics, art, literature, and cinema. Often with larger-than-life characters leading the narrative, the “good vs. evil” conflict reveals humanity’s intrinsic desire to be safe amidst an omniscient and, often, ephemeral sense of fear.

In cybersecurity, this conflict plays out on a daily basis, where “good” is represented by the unsung cybersecurity heroes and “evil” is represented by an aggregation of nation-state actors, cybercriminals, hackers, industrial spies, hacktivists, and cyber terrorists – all with different agendas rooted in a desire to tip the balance of power in their favor.

In order to shift this balance of power, certain behaviors are required. We’ve often said that understanding cybersecurity comes down to understanding attacker behaviors. In this report, we use key data from cyberattacks seen over the last year to tell a clear story on how attackers are evolving and what defenders are (and should be) doing to evolve their own behaviors.

Using the MITRE ATT&CK™ framework as the backdrop for our research, this report uncovers the top attack tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) seen over the last year and provides specific guidance on ransomware, commodity malware, wipers, access mining, and destructive attacks.

Of note, our data set has been expanded for this annual report. Included in our analysis this year is attack data from across the VMware Carbon Black Cloud, publicly available sources, and the dark web.

We’ve also invested heavily in expanding our scope for “behaviors” this year. In addition to focusing on attacker behaviors, we’ve commissioned a study from Forrester Consulting to determine the specific behaviors exhibited by defenders – namely the CISOs and CIOs charged with holding up the “good” side of the equation.

Our goal is to offer a holistic view of how attackers have evolved, what defenders are doing to keep pace, and how security and IT teams can work together in 2020 and beyond in the unending battle of “good vs. evil.”