India most targeted country with 13.7% cyberattacks: Report

NEW DELHI — India is the most targeted country, with 13.7 per cent of all cyberattacks, followed by the US with 9.6 per cent, Indonesia and China with 9.3 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, a new report revealed on Monday.

According to the cybersecurity firm Cyfirma, India was the most targeted country in 2022, as attacks on government agencies more than doubled.

In the second half of 2022, there were 95 per cent more cyberattacks on government agencies than in the same period in 2021.

The number of state-sponsored cyber attacks in India increased by more than 100 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.

Healthcare is the most targeted sector by hackers, followed by education, research, government and military sectors, according to the report.

“India’s growing prominence at the world stage and push from Western economies to favour India over other large countries, a young and tech-savvy population with low cybersec maturity has played a key role in hackers coming after critical assets, government agencies with an intent to breach them and harm India’s strategic interests,” said Kumar Ritesh, CEO & Founder, Cyfirma.

Moreover, the report showed that an organisation in India was attacked 1,866 times per week on average in 2022.

The most common types of cyberattacks are phishing attacks, malware attacks, and ransomware attacks.

About 78 per cent of Indian organisations experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, with 80 per cent of those attacks resulting in data encryption, the report mentioned.

Between January to July 2023, the report observed 39 campaigns targeting various industries in India. Known groups like FancyBear, TA505, Mission 2025, Stone Panda and Lazarus Group were suspected to be behind these campaigns.

Of these 39 campaigns, 14 have been directed by China State-sponsored groups with the intent of espionage.

About 11 of these campaigns were planned by North Korea-backed hackers as part of HaaS.

While 10 attacks originated from Russian threat actors, of which only four were state-sponsored, the report said.