India Among Top Nations Attacked by Ransomware in 2019
Dec. 18, 2019Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Security identified three families as the most notorious — Ryuk, Purga and Stop.
India was attacked by all three groups of ransomware — 5.84 per cent by Ryuk, 0.80 per cent by Purga and 10.10 per cent by Stop. Ryuk appeared on the threat landscape more than a year ago and has since been active all over the world, both in public and in the private sector. Its distribution model usually involves delivery via backdoor malware which, in turn, spreads by the means of phishing with a malicious attachment disguised as a financial document.
“While threat actors’ demands would sometimes reach up to $5,000,000, actual costs and damages sustained during attacks are estimated to be larger,”the findings showed.“One must always keep in mind that paying extortionists is a short-term solution which only encourages criminals and keeps them funded to quite possibly return. In addition, once the city has been attacked, the whole infrastructure is compromised and requires an incident investigation and a thorough audit,”said Fedor Sinitsyn, a Security Researcher at Kaspersky.
“While the trend of attacks on municipalities is only growing, it can be stifled and nipped in the bud by adjusting the approach to cybersecurity and what is more important by the refusal to pay ransoms and broadcasting this decision as an official statement,”he added.
To avoid such malware infiltrating organizations, it is essential to install all security updates as soon as they appear.“Most cyber attacks are possible by exploiting vulnerabilities that have already been reported and addressed, so installing the latest security updates lowers the chances of an attack,”said the report.
