India’s manufacturing industry witnessed the most ransomware extortion in 2023, according to a global report.

The report is based on incident data from more than 250 organisations and more than 600 incidents.

It examined 3,998 posts from leak sites - platforms where threat actors publicly disclose stolen data as a means of coercing victims into paying ransom - from various ransomware groups.

Globally, a 49% year-on-year (YoY) increase was seen in multi-extortion ransomware attacks from 2022 - 2023, while in India manufacturing sector was the worst hit.

“In India, the manufacturing sector has emerged as the primary target for ransomware attacks over the past year. This unsettling trend underscores the critical vulnerabilities within the Indian manufacturing sector, where limited visibility into operational technology (OT) systems, inadequate network monitoring, and suboptimal cyber-hygiene implementation have left organisations exposed,” said an executive of the global networking firm in a statement.

“Organisations must implement enterprise-wide ‘Zero Trust’ network architecture to create layers of security that limit an attacker from successfully moving laterally around the network,” they added.

The report also showed that phishing dropped to just 17% in 2023, from a one-third share of initial access incidents in 2022.

“This indicates a potential de-prioritisation of phishing as cybercriminals adapt to more technologically advanced - and perhaps more efficient - infiltration methods,” the report said.

Further, the report showed a discernible rise in the exploitation of software and API vulnerabilities - accounting for 38.60% of the initial access points in 2023, up from 28.20% in 2022.

(Source: IANS)

- Edited for style

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Ransomware emerged as top cyber threat in India: Report