While ransomware reigned supreme in 2017 accounting for 28 per cent of malware attacks and cryptominers only made up 9 per cent, the figures flipped in 2018, with ransomware dropping to 13 per cent of malware attacks and cryptojackers soaring to 27 per cent, a new report said on Tuesday.

"While cryptomining may seem like a relatively innocuous, low-priority threat, it's important to remember that these attacks slow down system processes and may overwhelm system capacity," said Senior Security Analyst Sivan Nir from cyber security company Skybox Security.

"The cryptominer may be only part of a larger attack structure. By letting them set up home in your network, you're inviting them to try to gain access to other parts of your environment," Nir added.

The report also warned of a false sense of security in Cloud networks.

"While the security of Clouds is relatively strong, misconfiguration issues within them can still abound and security issues can arise within the applications used to manage such networks," the findings showed.

Whether protecting against cryptominers, threats to the operational technology (OT) network or simply trying to keep up with what vulnerability to fix next, incorporating threat intelligence in vulnerability management programmes will give organisations the edge they need to counter a dynamic threat landscape, the report added.

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