Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 35 | Page 55

FEATURE : RANSOMWARE

Ransomware groups attack society ’ s most vulnerable

There have been many notable attacks in the past year from ransomware groups , with a particular spike in attacks on schools and hospitals , demonstrating how low these actors are willing to stoop in their attacks . This includes the attacks from Vice Society , which was responsible for the data leaks from several major school systems in 2022 . The group continues to be active in 2023 , with nearly half of the incidents posted to their leak site impacting educational institutions .

In 2022 , 30 organizations on the Forbes Global 2000 list were publicly impacted by extortion attempts . Since 2019 , at least 96 of these organizations have had confidential files publicly exposed to some degree as part of attempted extortion . At least 75 % of ransomware attacks fielded by Unit 42 ’ s Incident Response team resulted from attack surface exposures .

“ Ransomware and extortion groups are forcing their victims into a pressure cooker , with the ultimate goal of increasing their chances of getting paid ,” said Wendi Whitmore , Senior Vice President and Head of Unit 42 .

“ Harassment has been involved in one of every five ransomware cases we ’ ve investigated recently , showing the lengths that these groups are willing to go to coerce a payday . Many are going so far as to leverage customer information that has been stolen to harass them and try to force the organization ’ s hand into payment .”

Organizations based in the US were most severely publicly affected , with 42 % of the observed leaks in 2022 . Germany and the UK accounted for nearly 5 % each . Manufacturing was the most targeted industry in 2022 with 447 compromised organizations publicly exposed on leak sites .

At least 75 % of ransomware attacks fielded by Unit 42 ’ s Incident Response team resulted from attack surface exposures . p

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