India Ransomware Report 2022

India Ransomware Report 2022
 

News: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has reported that ransomware attacks are not only motivated by money but also by geopolitical conflicts.
 

What are Ransomware attacks?

→ Ransomware is a type of malware that prevents or limits users from accessing their system, either by locking the system's screen or by locking the users' files until a ransom is paid.

→ While ransomware has been around for decades, ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated, spreading through phishing emails, spear phishing, email attachments, vulnerability exploits, computer worms and other attack vectors.

→ Examples – AIDS Trojan, Wannacry, Cryptolocker, Petya, Bad Rabbit etc
 

Key findings:

→ The number of reported ransomware attacks in India in 2022 was 53% higher than in 2021.

→ Ransomware attacks targeted critical infrastructure organizations to disrupt services and extract ransom payments.

→ The IT/ITeS sector in India was the most impacted by ransomware attacks, followed by the finance and manufacturing sectors.

→ Lockbit was the most prevalent ransomware variant in India, followed by Makop and DJVU/Stop, Makop and Phobos; Vice Society and BlueSky were new variants.

→ The RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-service) ecosystem is becoming more prominent, allowing even non-technical individuals to launch ransomware attacks.

→ It was suggested that organizations should regularly update their contingency plan, have higher cyber awareness among their employees, frequent audits, reporting about cyber-attacks to government etc.
 

Government initiatives for Cyber-Security:
 

Initiatives

→ National Cyber Security Policy 2013
→ National Cyber Security Strategy 2020
→ Cyber Surakshit Bharat Yojana
→ Cyber Swachhta Kendra
→ Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre(I4C)
→ National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre
→ CERT-In
 

Global Effort:

Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime - is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. India is not a signatory.