2023 cybercriminals added variety & speed to attack vectors

2023 has been the cybercriminal’s year. Connected devices in sectors like manufacturing and education, the financial industry, the gaming and gambling industry, and the cryptocurrency space were hit by DDoS, malware attacks, kyberoasting, Access Broker advertisements, and DNS attacks. On top of this variety, cybercriminals got faster.

In August 2023, Bloomberg reported a cyberattack on Norway’s government, which exploited a vulnerability linked to a mobile device, lasted at least four months.

Read more: Experts predict India in for cybersecurity woes in 2024

Adam Meyers, head of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike, says, “In our tracking of over 215 adversaries in the past year, we have seen a threat landscape that has grown in complexity and depth as threat actors pivot to new tactics and platforms, such as abusing valid credentials to target vulnerabilities in the cloud and in software.”

When we talk about stopping breaches, we cannot ignore the undeniable fact that adversaries are getting faster, and they are employing tactics intentionally designed to evade traditional detection methods. Security leaders need to ask their teams if they have the solutions required to stop lateral movement from an adversary in just seven minutes

Adam Meyers, head of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike

“When we talk about stopping breaches, we cannot ignore the undeniable fact that adversaries are getting faster, and they are employing tactics intentionally designed to evade traditional detection methods. Security leaders need to ask their teams if they have the solutions required to stop lateral movement from an adversary in just seven minutes.”

IoT

According to the Zscaler^TM ThreatLabz 2023 Enterprise IoT and OT Threat Report, a 400% increase occurred in IoT and OT malware attacks Year-over-Year, underscoring the need for better Zero Trust security to protect critical infrastructures. The manufacturing industry, which relies heavily on both IoT and OT, was the top targeted sector, bearing the brunt of blocked IoT malware attacks, accounting for 54.5% of all attacks and averaging 6,000 weekly attacks across all monitored devices.

Also, the education sector…