Russia, Iran, North Korea and China are stepping up cyber attacks with high success rates – computers

Cyberattack trends have been collected in a report recently released by Microsoft and to which SAPO TEK had prior access. Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Protection and Trust, MicrosoftHe explained to a small group of journalists how The hybrid war launched by Russia over Ukraine is affecting the landscape, with the growth of state-backed attacks reinforced the idea that Although these are not specifically aimed at civilians, no one is completely safe.

study Collects attack data between July 2021 and June 2022, during which more than 43 trillion indicators were identified, allowing a portrait of the evolution of cyber security in the world. The company’s approach to these topics and the strengthening of planned investment in the company’s cyber security division were the topics of conversation. After Brad Smith attended the Internet Summit Together with Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Myklo Fedor, he announced continued support for the country and an investment of $100 million.

“You can’t make this statement without talking about Russia’s hybrid war on Ukraine,” he says. Tom Burt admits that the results did not bring anything unexpected, although it reveals that there is more activity by “agents” sponsored by states, and that the situation is not limited to Ukraine or NATO partners. “And we’re seeing more destructive attacks, and they’re not just limited to Ukraine,” he explains, pointing to Iran’s attacks on Israel as examples, and joining cryptocurrency theft efforts in North Korea.

Click on the images for more details on the report

Trends include increased sophistication of the tools used by attackers, along with the strengthening of ransomware and fraud that compromises companies’ emails.

“Ransomware data is being used to put pressure on organizations that can put them in dire straits with the threat of releasing compromising information,” warns Tom Burt.

The person in charge recalled that “andWe are all under attack and the trends are increasing in scale and intensity“That’s it By 2022, projections suggest that $6 trillion will be stolen by 2022A number that will grow to 10 trillion by 2025. Tom Burt admits that “the projections and values ​​pointed into the future each year are always below the actual observations.”

Service disruption, cryptocurrency theft and data destruction

According to the report, the effectiveness of state-sponsored attacks has increased 20% to 40% success rate and Justified by developments Russia Destroying Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and spying on allies including the United States (55%), United Kingdom (8%), Canada (3%), Germany (3%) and Switzerland (2%).

90% of attacks detected last year originated from Russia and targeted NATO member states, with 48% of these attacks compromising IT organizations in NATO countries.

Last year alone, between July 2021 and June 2022, Microsoft was blocked 37 billion email threats And 34.7 billion identity theft threats. According to the report, the main sectors affected by nation-state attacks identified by Microsoft are IT (22%), NGOs and think tanks (17%), education (14%), governments (10%), and finance (5%). , media (4%), health services (2%), transport (2%), intergovernmental organizations (2%) and communication (2%).

Phishing and ransomware attacks are also on the rise Last year there were 921 attacks per second on passwords, a 74% increase from the previous year.. “Many of these resulted in ransomware attacks, which affected sectors such as copycats and the like. Industry (28%), Health (20%), Retail (16%), Education (8%), Energy (8%), Finance (8%), Governments (8%) And IT (4%),” says MicrosoftThe incidents were not evenly distributed across regions, and in North America and Europe, the company saw a decrease in the number of ransomware cases globally.

Blocked approx. 710 million emails Fishing A week, and the war in Ukraine has become a new phishing tactic. Since March 2022, e-mails impersonating legitimate organizations have appeared asking for Bitcoin and Ethereum donations, purportedly supporting Ukrainian citizens.

Tom Burt explains Microsoft has stepped up investment in cybersecurity teams That’s it The report is also a tool that customers can use to strengthen their security strategies.

Access the full report Via the Microsoft website, at this link.