New research from cloud security provider Akamai has revealed that there has been a 204 per cent increase in total ransomware victims between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023 in the Asia Pacific region as cybercriminals have made use of Zero-Day and One-Day vulnerabilities in their attacks.
In its report “Ransomware on the Move: Exploitation Techniques and the Active Pursuit of Zero-Days”, Akamai found that ransomware groups have shifted their modus operandi from phishing to vulnerability abuse in order to exploit unknown security threats and infiltrate business internal networks to deploy ransomware, targeting the exfiltration of files, the unauthorised extraction or transfer of sensitive information. This indicates file backup solutions are no longer a sufficient strategy to protect against ransomware.
Small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make up the majority of ransomware victims in the region with a reported revenue of up to US$50 million that cybercriminals are eager to target, with those in the manufacturing, business services, construction, retail, as well as energy, utilities, and telecommunications industries are at greater risk of being targeted by these attacks.
Akamai warns that unless cybersecurity standards are strengthened, organisations will continue to be vulnerable to disruption as it has been found that victims of multiple ransomware attacks were more than 6x more likely to experience the second attack within three months of the first attack
“Adversaries behind ransomware attacks continue to evolve their techniques and strategies striking at the heart of organisations by exfiltrating their critical and sensitive information,” said Dean Houari, Director of Security Technology and Strategy, at Akamai. “It’s imperative that both the private and public sectors across Asia Pacific strengthen collaboration to help organisations defend against ever-growing ransomware threats.”
“Businesses – especially SMEs – must work to adopt a zero trust architecture starting with software defined microsegmentation in order to effectively mitigate ever evolving cyber attacks as well as Ransomware-as-a-Service. By doing so, they can successfully protect their critical assets, business reputation, and ensure business continuity regardless of the type of attack tool deployed by cyber criminal gangs,” he concluded.
