Cyber Attacks: Europe Becomes the Second Most Attacked Region in the World

IBM Security has published its annual X-Force Threat Intelligence Index revealing that, although the share of ransomware incidents decreased only slightly (four percent) in 2022, attackers were nonetheless more successful in detecting and preventing ransomware. Despite this, attackers continued to innovate, with the report showing that the average time to complete a ransomware attack fell from two months to less than four days.

According to the 2023 report, last year the focus of attackers was on introducing backdoors that allow remote access to systems. About 67 percent of backdoor cases were related to ransomware, and the targets managed to detect them before their installation. This increased installation of backdoors can be partially attributed to their high market value. Specifically, X-Force recorded that access to existing backdoors is sold for as much as $10,000, which is significant compared to data on stolen credit cards that are sold daily for less than $10 per card.

– The shift towards earlier detection of attacks and response has allowed adversaries to be disrupted at an earlier stage, thereby temporarily slowing the progress of ransomware. However, it is only a matter of time before today’s backdoor problem becomes tomorrow’s ransomware crisis. Attackers always find new ways to evade detection. Good defense is no longer enough. To end this ongoing race with attackers, companies must adopt a proactive threat-focused security strategy,” said Charles Henderson, head of IBM Security X-Force.

The IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index tracks new and existing trends and patterns of attacks collected from billions of data points from network and endpoint devices, incident response engagements, and other sources.

Some key findings in the 2023 report include:

– Extortion: Go-to threat method. The most common consequence of cyber attacks in 2022 was extortion, primarily through ransomware attacks or attacks involving business email compromise.

– Cybercriminals use email communication as a weapon. In 2022, there was a significant increase in email thread hijacking by attackers who used compromised email addresses to insert themselves into existing correspondence, posing as the original participant. X-Force recorded a 100 percent increase in such attempts on a monthly basis compared to data from 2021.

– Legacy exploits are still active. Due to the fact that exposure to cyber risks has reached an all-time high, the share of known successful cyber attacks relative to exposure has decreased by 10% from 2018 to 2022. Research shows that legacy exploits have allowed older malware, such as WannaCry and Conficker, to continue their existence and spread.

Europe as the Second Most Attacked Region in the World

After Asia and the Pacific, Europe has become the second most attacked region in the world, with 28 percent of cyber attacks recorded by X-Force last year. The Asia-Pacific region retained the top spot as the most attacked region in 2022, with 31 percent of all cases.

The introduction of backdoors accounted for 21 percent of cases in the region, while ransomware was used in 11 percent of cases. Remote access tools were identified in 10 percent of incidents that X-Force responded to. The most commonly used method in Europe was extortion, with 44 percent of recorded cases, where geopolitical tensions were exploited for threats. Regarding the impact on clients, 38% of cases observed by X-Force in Europe were related to extortion, 17% resulted in data theft, and 14% involved credential harvesting.

Professional, business, and consumer services, along with finance and insurance, are the industries with the highest number of attacks, each accounting for 25 percent of cases that X-Force responded to. Manufacturing ranked second with 12 percent of attack cases, while energy and healthcare were tied for third place with 10 percent each. The United Kingdom was the most attacked country in Europe, with 43 percent of cases, followed by Germany, Portugal, Italy, and France.