India now ranks second-most in terms of security threats on the Cloud domain, after the US followed by Australia, Canada and Brazil, and the most often used technique was malware in reported cases, as per a new report released on October 5.
As the different sectors shifted online, cyber attackers have introduced new and updated threats and strategies to target the government, financial institutions, etc.
As per the ‘Advanced Threat Research Report’ published in October 2021 by McAfee Enterprise, the government was the most targeted sector in quarter 2 of 2021 with a 64 percent increase in publicly reported cyber-attacks. “Ransomeware has evolved far beyond its origins, and cybercriminals have become smarter and quicker to pivot their strategies alongside a whole host of new bad-actor schemes,” Raj Samani, McAfee Enterprise fellow and chief scientist, was quoted as saying by the report.
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Ransomeware like REvil, Ryuk, Babuk and DarkSide has permeated into public consciousness, disrupting critical services globally. The government was the most targeted sector by such ransomware in Q2 of 2021, followed by telecom, energy, and media and communications.
The attacks have increased by 250 percent between Q1 and Q2 of 2021 while there have been an increase of 125 percent and 47 percent in Malicious Script and Malware, respectively.
Financial institutions were also majorly targeted among the reported cloud incidents. Other than the governments and financial institutions across the world, sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, etc. were also attacked.
The report indicated, “The United States experienced the most reported incidents in the second quarter, and Europe saw the largest surges in reported cases in Q2 with 52 percent.”
The second quarter of 2021 was a fruitful quarter for ransomware as it earned its place as a high-profile cyber agenda item for the US administration following the Colonial Pipeline attack.
“In the second quarter of 2021, the challenges of shifting cloud security have been noticed to accommodate a more flexible pandemic workforce and an increased workload that presented cybercriminals with more potential exploits and targets,” the report pointed out.
