Data extortion, network infrastructure attacks on the rise

Data extortion has been increasingly leveraged by ransomware operations instead of data encryption, with the change in attack techniques fueled by improved ransomware detection systems and stronger law enforcement crackdowns on ransomware gangs, TechRepublic reports. Healthcare and public health was the sector most targeted by ransomware attacks this year, while LockBit continued to be the most prolific ransomware gang for the second year running, followed by the ALPHV/BlackCat and Cl0p ransomware operations, a report from Cisco Talos revealed. Attacks leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities have also reached unprecedented levels this year, with the increase attributed to Cl0p's exploitation of the MOVEit, PaperCut, and Fortra GoAnywhere MFT flaws. Meanwhile, intrusions against networking devices have also risen this year amid Chinese and Russian threat groups' cyberespionage operations. Aside from all targeted networking devices having high-severity security flaws, such devices were also found to have poor security measures, including the persistence of default credential usage.