The wave of cyber attacks continues to grow. According to ANSSI (Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information), the number of attacks has increased fourfold. What's more, their success rate has continued to rise. And yet, 100% of the companies affected were equipped with a firewall. This shows just how ineffective these protection solutions are against ransomware. On the other hand, all organizations that supplemented their firewalls with Olfeo proxy solutions were protected.

There's no doubt about it: ransomware attacks are on the increase, and the impact on businesses, both in financial and functional terms, is catastrophic. Even more worryingly, Gartner claims that by 2025, 75% of organizations will have suffered one or more ransomware attacks. Companies protect themselves with firewalls, to which they tend to entrust all their security. Yet all successful attacks have passed through these firewalls without difficulty.

Undemanding organizations are increasingly relying on this single tool to defend themselves. The firewall as the only protection technology is, in fact, a source of vulnerability: 100% of the companies affected did have a firewall.

Firewalls have shown their limitations when it comes to these ransomware attacks. There are several reasons for this:

• Using a single firewall goes against the ANSSI* recommendation to implement multi-layer protection. Using a single vendor's technology to secure your information system is far too risky: hackers need to be presented with different barriers. Who would have the idea of locking their door with 4 identical locks? 3 locks with different technologies will be far more effective.
• The concentration of firewall players is leading to a reduction in the number of technologies used. 80% of European organizations use 5 brands of firewall. Hackers are well aware of this, and have acquired this software to prepare their attacks by testing them. This largely explains their success rate.

Olfeo, a long-standing expert in securing web access, is on the front line when it comes to ransomware attacks, as these are carried out via web flows. Over the past 18 years, Olfeo has developed specific, advanced and innovative methods to combat this type of attack. One of Olfeo's key features is the trusted environment, which creates a secure Internet space where employees can browse in complete safety.

Combined with firewalls, the Olfeo proxy offers a multi-layered defense methodology that proved its effectiveness during this crisis. 100% of Olfeo customers successfully repelled attacks.

Alexandre Souillé, President of Olfeo, the French leader in web security, comments: "We're proud of the work we do every day to protect our customers. The solutions we provide have proved highly effective. In fact, none of our customers who have followed our recommendations and set up a trustworthy environment have suffered a loss of business or financial loss.

*Recommendation n°22 of the ANSSI IT hygiene guide - https://www.ssi.gouv.fr/guide/guide-dhygiene-informatique/