Cyber attack on software providers disrupts trading of shares.
UK Experiencing an average of 788 weekly cyber attacks in 2022, the difference is 77% increase since 2021.
Sophisticated ransomware gangs have led the frequent cyber-attacks as reports cite surge in the same. A Russia backed ransomware gang attacked a company which plays a major role in Britain’s financial system, after the reports were released the stock trading in London was spiraled into chaos.
Ion group plays central role in trading at the Square Mile.
The trading software provider ion group was targeted on Tuesday, by “Lockbit”, the group which was behind the cyber attack opposed to Royal Mail last month. The London-based software provider Ion plays an important role in the trading of shares, derivatives and debt in the Square Mile.
Approximately 42 clients were affected by the attack as disruption was faced in the clear derivates division.
The attack came just weeks after Lockbit had forced Royal Mail to halt their international postage deliveries, and this led to more than half a million letters and parcels being stuck.
In the incident when the guardian confirmed it was down because of a ransomware attack, UK staff members personal data had been accessed earlier in the month of January.
Cyber attacks hit one in three firms weekly: report
These are not the only incidents, in fact, these indicate the perilous condition off business and cybersecurity across the United Kingdom. A UK government report which was published last year claimed that out of three businesses, one in the UK experience cyber attacks or data breaches at least one time in a week.
Now this comprises over 1/4 of charities and 31% of all businesses that are suffering. The report cites that the cyber attacks are occurring more frequently with organizations over the last 12 months reporting Additional breaches.
Out of five only two businesses manage and use The IT provider, the security risks that can come by their immediate suppliers are reviewed by only 13%.
The 2022 cyber security breaches survey report which is given by the department for digital culture and media and sport made revelations of the disturbing trends. the National Cybersecurity Center later came up with a note to encourage organizations to follow easy steps in their guidance to their staff to lessen the risk of being a victim to an attack.
Italy Glick a cybersecurity expert and VP of OPSWAT of products spoke to a reporter on television live from Tel Aviv, Israel.
The reporter asked, how big a problem is this and what are the potential dangers ahead?
“I believe this is a huge problem. This is Actually a pandemic in cyber. we are seeing constantly more and more attacks more and more of them are required to go public due to regulations. so, you know there are these attacks but there’s a lot of attacks going on without us knowing.” said Glick.
The reasons for the sudden surge in cyber attacks Across the UK in recent months?
Glick said: “The reason for that is bad cybersecurity hygiene, people in the organizations don’t take care of the basic requirements and the necessary requirements to protect their organization. There is a skill gap, there’s not enough talent and eventually they get hacked.”
What specific protection and precaution measures would you Advice for companies against cyber-attacks?
“So, the cyber essentials program in the UK defines 5 areas where an organization should focus and provide protection. My suggestion is not only to deploy those specific requirements like anti malware, authentication, attachment management but to put a combined solution. It also takes care of all of those aspects together and provide visibility for the CSO or the IT manager or even the CEO of the company to see what’s going on in the organization.” said Glick.
Global cyber-attacks increased rapidly compared to 2021- 38% in 2022, according to the new information from Check Point Software. and the United Kingdom saw a massive surge of 77%.
Targeting the educational institutions that shifted to eLearning after COVID-19, these cyber attack numbers were driven by the hackers in small numbers who were swifter and included ransomware gangs who focused on the exploitation of tools which were used in work from home environments.
The hackers are interested in healthcare organizations which in turn leads to the increase in global cyber-attacks. The largest increase was seen in cyber attacks in the year 2022, when compared to all the other industries. With the maturity of AI technology, such as CHATGPT, CPR has warned that the number of cyber-attacks can accelerate in the year 2023.
Key Statistics:
- With about 1168 weekly attacks per organization at an average, the global volume of cyber attacks came to an all-time high in Q4.
- Education/Research, Government and Healthcare were the top three most attacked industries in 2022.
- With 1875 weekly attacks per organization, the African geography experienced soaring volume of attacks, which was followed with 1691 weekly attacks on each organization by APAC.
- The following countries showcased the greatest increases compared to 2021 in cyber-attacks in 2022, Latin America (+29%), North America (+52%) and Europe (+26%)
- In 2022 a 57% increase and overall cyber-attacks was experienced by USA, you UK on the other side experienced a 77% increase and Singapore experienced an increase of 26%
Talking about the new data group manager at checkpoint software, Omer Dembinsky said: “Compared to 2021, with 38% more cyber-attacks weekly on corporate networks in 2022, cyber attacks are increasing worldwide. various cyber threat trends are occurring all at once.
“The first point is that the ransomware ecosystem is continuously evolving and growing with smaller and more swift criminal groups that are being formed to evade law enforcement. The second point is the aim of the hackers is being widened and they are targeting business collaboration tools like Teams, OneDrive, Google Drive and Slack with phishing exploits. All these tools contribute to a rich source of sensitive data as most organizations’ employees have continued to work remotely.
“Third Point being that academic institutions in recent times have turned into a popular feeding ground for cyber criminals. with the age of technology and digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic. When we talk about facts, compared to 2021 an increase of 43% in 2022 was experienced in the Education/Research sector which was also globally number one most attacked industry, amounting to 2,314 attacks on each organization every week on an average.
“The unexpected shift from physical learning to online learning has made many education institutions to be ill prepared which creates plethora of opportunities for hackers through any means necessary to infiltrate networks. The unique challenge that schools and universities have to deal with young adults or children, and majority of them use their personal devices, often connect to public Wi-Fi, work from shared locations- all without pondering on the security implications.
“When we look back to 2022 and the cyber attacks on the healthcare sector, in the US the healthcare organizations went through 1410 weekly cyber attacks per organization on an average, which is 86% more than the number seen in 2021. Health care sector was ranked second out of all sectors which experienced the most cyber-attacks in the United States.
“Smaller hospitals are targeted as hackers think that they are particularly vulnerable and short on cyber security resources, because they are understaffed and underfunded to stand against sophisticated cyber-attack.
“Because the health sector is so Remunerative to the hackers, their goal is to gain medical records numbers, sometimes Social Security numbers with direct threats to the patients from the ransomware gangs as they also gain health insurance information, and demand money threatening to release the patient records. These ransomware gangs also like the attention that they gain from attacking a hospital as a plus point for their fame.
