Global Financial Sector Experienced 1 Million Cyberattacks In 120 Days: Report
With over 50 national elections scheduled across the globe in 2024, the report also predicts expanded use of deepfake technology.
Global financial sector have experienced one million cyberattacks in 120-day period from September to December 2023 using mainly commodity malware, according to a report by BlackBerry Ltd.
The Global Threat Intelligence report showed that threat actors are focusing their efforts on targeting high-value data held by the global financial sector.
The use of commodity malware indicates a large number of independent actors targeting the industry for financial gain, the report said. While critical infrastructure attacks targeted government, financial, healthcare and communications industries, a developing trend was attacks on commercial enterprise sector, which comprises retail, capital goods, wholesale trade and related industries.
There was a 27% increase in novel malware, which rose to 3.7 new malicious samples per minute, compared to 2.9 per minute in the previous reporting period. BlackBerry said its cybersecurity solutions stopped 31 attacks every minute, a 19% increase from the last reporting period.
"We're consistently seeing increased volumes of attack in highly lucrative industries using novel malware," Ismael Valenzuela, vice president of threat research and intelligence at BlackBerry, said. "We've reached a pivotal point where traditional detection methods alone are not enough to combat this increasingly complex problem."
"AI is already being weaponised by malicious entities, so it must equally be the dominant tool for detection and defence," Valenzuela said.
Key insights from the report include:
62% Of Industry-Related Attacks Targeted Critical Industries: Digitisation and the prospect of weakening national infrastructure attracted cyber gangs and malware-as-a-service groups, who attempted to exploit security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. Critical infrastructure attacks accounted for 62% of industry-related attacks over the report period.
Commercial Enterprises Also Under Attack: Of all threats, 33% targeted commercial enterprises, such as retail, manufacturing, automotive and professional services. The majority (53%) of these deployed information-stealing (infostealer) malware with the aim of accessing highly sensitive data.
Weaponisation Of CVEs By Threat Actors: Ransomware gangs were observed taking advantage of new zero-day vulnerabilities and mass mobilising against potentially vulnerable targets, with zero-day exploits motivating profiteer groups.
Ransomware And Network Intrusion Key Cyber Threats: According to BlackBerry’s incident response breakdown, the top threats were ransomware (29% of incidents) and network intrusion (24%).
Based on data analysis, the report predicts that 2024 will witness an increase in attacks targeting critical infrastructure and other profitable segments. VPN appliances will remain desirable targets for nation-state-level threat actors, and an increase in supply chain cyberattacks targeting hardware and software vulnerabilities are anticipated.
With 50-plus national elections scheduled in various countries across the globe in 2024, the report also predicts expanded use of deepfake technology. Election periods are rife with misinformation and disinformation campaigns, and malicious actors are likely to use deepfakes to create realistic, yet fake, misleading media.
