Number of Cyber Threats Increased During 2015

Ransomware attacks are still a top concern for IT services all over the world. But a new trend is emerging in the form of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. Hackers continue to come up with new ways to make lives of enterprises miserable. Moreover, there seems to be an increase in the number of attacks against ICS operators.

The Game of Cyber Threats Continues

From a security point of view, the year 2015 has been quite an active one, to say the least. This is not good news by any means, though, as 295 incidents were responded to by DHS. Keeping in mind how it becomes significantly easier for hackers to penetrate existing systems, this is not entirely unexpected.

What is rather peculiar is how assailants seem to be targeting the energy sector as of late. Nearly 16% of all incidents were targeting this industry, and transportation equipment manufacturers were not exempt from these attacks. Even primary metals manufacturers reported several incidents taking place, which was a first.

Corporate networks, in general, were the most often targeted, though. That being said, these matters seem to be less pressing despite then being labeled as “serious concerns.” Corporate networks are also the most common origin of attacks against operational networks.  Addressing these problems will be difficult, though.

The sale of ransomware and malware as a service is the biggest threat to date, though. Vupen Security and Hacking Team are officially labeled as security research firms, but they will not hesitate to sell valuable information on exploits to the highest bidder. Access-as-a-service, as this trend is officially named, has proven to be a lucrative business so far.

Bitcoin ransomware remains a looming threat for any individual or corporate user, though. Three different utility companies were hit by ransomware last year, forcing them to temporarily suspend their services. It will not be the last time we see these types of attacks taking place, though.

Source: Dark Reading

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