Ransomware detection in India doubled to 7.34% in Q3: Acronis report

The report also shows that during the second half of 2021, only 20% of companies globally reported not having been attacked, as opposed to 32% last year

India ranks fourth among Asian countries for ransomware detection percentage which has doubled to 7.34 per cent in Q3 of CY2021 from 3.65 per cent in Q2 of CY2021, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Acronis.

Managed service providers (MSPs) are particularly at risk — having more of their own management tools, such as professional services automation (PSA) or remote monitoring and management  (RMM), used against them by cybercriminals, and thus are becoming increasingly vulnerable to supply chain attacks.

Supply-chain attacks on MSPs are particularly devastating, since attackers gain access to both their business and clients — as seen in the SolarWinds breach last year and the Kaseya VSA attack earlier in 2021, one successful attack means crippling hundreds or thousands of SMBs.

The report also shows that during the second half of 2021, only 20 per cent of companies reported not having been attacked — as opposed to 32 per cent last year — indicating that attacks are increasing in frequency across the board.

“The cybercrime industry is a well-oiled machine, using cloud and machine intelligence to scale and automate their operations. While the threat landscape continues to grow, we see that the main attack vectors stay the same — and they still work,” says Candid Wuest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research.

“While the attack surface is growing and 2022 will surely bring us surprises, cyber protection automation remains the only path to greater security, reduced risks, lower costs, and improved efficiency,” he added.

The report said that as cryptocurrencies become more and more popular, there will be more attacks on crypto exchanges and cryptocurrencies owners. For example, the crypto exchange Coinbase has recently disclosed that atleast 6,000 customers had fallen victim to a phishing campaign earlier this year — resulting in funds being stolen from their accounts.

It also highlighted that Apple’s macOS has also been a target for cybercriminals, as Macs’ market share is growing. Some Windows malware has been ported to work on Macs, as well as some specific malware created for utilising macOS vulnerabilities.