If there’s one thing that we’ve been repeating almost constantly this year, it’s that malware is evolving. And fast. But it might be more accurate to say that attacks themselves are evolving, and especially targeted attacks.

As reported by Verizon in their 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, malware was used in 51% of the cases in which there was a data breach (defined in the report as a “confirmed disclosure of data to an unauthorized party”). Another way of looking at this data point: almost half of security breaches did not use malware, but rather advanced hacking techniques.

In other words, a traditional antivirus is useless against these attacks as there is no malware involved.

It would appear that the next evolutions of targeted attacks will involve less malware and more customized attacks that adapt to the chosen target. Next-generation advanced security solutions that use contextual intelligence, such as Panda’s own Adaptive Defense, will become essential to combatting these attacks.

For a full analysis of the future of targeted attacks, watch the webinar recently given by Luis Corrons, Technical Director at PandaLabs, below.