The customers of Untangle channel partners are seeing fewer phishing, malware, virus and ransomware attacks as a result of deploying more advanced services to combat cyber threat, according to research by the firewall vendor.


According to Untangle's Voice of the Channel and 2021 Predictions Report, that's despite the fact that malware attacks remain plentiful and in some respects on the rise, especially when so many are expected to keep working remotely worldwide.


"The survey found that both channel partners and their customers are more aware than ever of these types of cyber attacks and, by association, were offered more advanced service portfolios from service providers to combat these threats," the vendor said.


Untangle's channel partners, furthermore, now predict customer spending on cybersecurity to rise in 2021, partly because of this increased awareness and related news stories covering cyber attacks and vulnerabilities, it said.


Budgets are likely to target the top three threats referenced by customers: phishing, malware such as viruses, and ransomware.


Sixty-eight percent of cyber attacks on Untangle channel customers were phish-based, compared to 84% a year ago; and 53% malware-based, compared to 84% in 2019, the vendor reported.


In the Untangle report, 75% of respondents said that the most requested security feature by clients was VPN connectivity, with much smaller shares calling for endpoint security (12%) and cloud migration (6%).


Read the full Untangle press statement.