Tag Archive for: number

The number of ransomware victims is booming — despite major threats being shut down


Despite the police dismantling some of the biggest and most dangerous ransomware threats out there, ransomware as a criminal industry continues to flourish. 

A new report from cybersecurity researchers from Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, which found a 49% increase in victims reported on ransomware leak sites. 

Source…

Amount in crypto stolen via hacking fell in 2023 but number of cases on the rise


SINGAPORE – The amount of stolen cryptocurrency from hacking may have fallen globally in 2023, but the number of incidents has risen, a report by blockchain research firm Chainalysis said.

The firm on Jan 24 said global funds stolen via crypto hacking plunged by about 54.3 per cent to US$1.7 billion (S$2.3 billion) in 2023 compared with the year before.

However, the number of individual hacking incidents grew 5.5 per cent the same year to 231, from 219 in 2022.

Hacking refers to the unauthorised access, manipulation or exploitation of computer systems, networks or information.

The report said cryptocurrency hacking has become a pervasive and formidable threat that has led to billions of dollars stolen from crypto platforms and exposing vulnerabilities across the ecosystem.

The drop in the amount stolen via crypto hacking in 2023 is largely because of a fall in decentralised finance, or DeFi, hacking. DeFi refers to a new financial system where transactions are made peer to peer on public blockchains.

“Hacks of DeFi protocols largely drove the huge increase in stolen crypto that we saw in 2021 and 2022, with cyber criminals stealing US$3.1 billion in DeFi hacks in 2022. But in 2023, hackers stole just US$1.1 billion from DeFi protocols. This amounts to a 63.7 per cent drop in the total value stolen from DeFi platforms year over year,” said Chainalysis.

The fall in the value and number of DeFi hacks come as DeFi operators become better at smart contract security, the report said.

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts on the blockchain, with the terms of the agreement directly written into code.

Ms Mar Gimenez-Aguilar, lead security architect and researcher at Web3 and blockchain security firm Halborn, said in the report that the rise in security measures in DeFi protocols is a key factor in lowering the number of hacks linked to smart contract vulnerabilities.

“If we compare the top 50 hacks by value lost from 2023 with those from previous years, there is a reduction in losses from 47 per cent of the total to 18.2 per cent,” she said.

Ms Gimenez-Aguilar said price manipulation attacks remained almost constant, with around 20 per cent of the total value…

Source…

Ransomware, Vendor Hacks Push Breach Number to Record High


Cybercrime
,
Fraud Management & Cybercrime
,
Ransomware

Report: 2.6 Billion Personal Records Exposed in the Last 2 Years

Ransomware, Vendor Hacks Push Breach Number to Record High
Data breaches in the U.S. have hit an all-time high thanks to hacking incidents, including ransomware and vendor attacks, says a new study released by Apple and MIT. (Image: Getty)

The number of data breaches in the U.S. has hit an all-time high amid mounting attacks against third party vendors and aggressive ransomware attacks, says a report from Apple and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher.

See Also: OnDemand | Understanding Human Behavior: Tackling Retail’s ATO & Fraud Prevention Challenge

Data breaches have more than tripled between 2013 and 2022, compromising 2.6 billion personal records in just the past two years – and that trend has continued to worsen in 2023, says the report written by MIT professor Stuart Madnick and published Thursday.

In the first eight months of 2023, more than 360 million people were affected by corporate and institutional data breaches, and 1 in 4 people in the U.S. had their health data exposed in data breaches.

More ransomware attacks were reported through January to September 2023 than in all of 2022, the report said. In the first three quarters of 2023, the number of ransomware attacks increased by nearly 70% compared to the same period in 2022.

A 2023 survey of 233 IT and cybersecurity professionals across 14 countries working in the healthcare sector found that 60% of organizations have faced a ransomware attack, which is…

Source…

Ukraine Tracks a Record Number of Cyber Incidents During War


Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks
,
Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Hackers Steal CCTV Footage to Study Efficacy of Missile Strikes and Drone Attacks

Ukraine Tracks a Record Number of Cyber Incidents During War
The aftermath of a Russian drone attack on a Kyiv energy facility on Oct. 27, 2022 (Image: State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

The tempo of cyberattacks against Ukrainian critical infrastructure has intensified this year – the second year in which Kyiv is fending off a Russian war of conquest.

See Also: OnDemand | Ransomware in the Cloud: Challenges and Security Best Practices

In the first 10 month of this year, Ukraine’s national computer emergency response team, CERT-UA, logged 2,054 cyber incidents, compared to 2,194 for the entirety of 2022, said Viktor Zhora, deputy chairman of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection. Three-quarters of the incidents involved civilian infrastructure, Zhora told a cybersecurity conference in Dublin on Thursday.


Hackers’ top goals are to steal information on the disposition of forces, infiltrate organizations that provide critical infrastructure services and steal people’s personal information from organizations across a number of sectors, including insurance and healthcare, said Zhora, who addressed the IRISSCON conference, held by IRISSCERT – short for the Irish Reporting and Information Security Service – via video link.


Since Russia launched an all-out invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the most dangerous hacking incidents have typically traced to Russia’s GRU military intelligence group, he said. The greatest number of attacks this year appear to have been launched by the Federal Security…

Source…