The global cyber threat landscape has evolved, the target area is much larger and a new wave of attacks, with cryptomining malware leading the onslaught, means businesses must focus on prevention and consolidation.

This is according to cyber security solutions provider CheckPoint Software.

At its CPX360 event hosted in Vienna, Austria, the company warned delegates that the multi-vector landscape of Gen VI threats has emerged, the risk deepened by pervasive cloud infrastructure adoption and a lack of security of connected mobile devices.

Senior executives from the company highlighted the shortage of skilled IT security practitioners, adding that IT and security teams must now combine cloud skills with their existing portfolios, adding to the pressure.

Avi Rembaum, VP Security Solutions at CheckPoint quoted Cyber Security Ventures as stating that by 2021 the cost of global cybercrime will be US$6-trillion.

Gil Shwed, founder and CEO of CheckPoint Software Technologies, said the increase in threat actors and threat vectors, as well as in complexity of the digital security and shortage of cyber security skills call for a more focused approach from businesses.

Shwed added that in 2018 the company identified over a thousand threat actors, blocked over 100-million unknown attacks, ThreatCloud passed 86 billion IOCs per day and 16, 555 vulnerabilities were discovered - a sharp rise from 6, 447 in 2016.

Only between 3 –and 5% of companies are adequately equipped to protect against current Gen V attacks said Shwed.

In its 2019 Security Report CheckPoint confirmed that cryptomines dominated the malware landscape in 2018, that 20% of companies globally continue to be hit by cryptomining attacks every week and 33% of companies were hit by mobile malware in the past 12 months.

The company announced the roll out of two additional security appliances to its GS Series and Maestro gateway threat prevention architecture as part of its strategy to integrate artificial intelligence and nano technology to bolster prevention.

The technology combines the company's threat prevention suite with Sandblast Zero-Day protection and is designed to support the mandatory migration from monolithic systems to automated micro-services.

"We are effectively splitting our architecture to bring back control, unify security and implement AI adaptive security control," said Shwed.

He added that the company would make its full suite of cloud services and solutions available in the cloud in 2020.