Medical industry wasn’t enough for cyber attackers that education sectors have become the new prime target for ransomware.
Sometimes we wonder if we’re ever going to be able to stop this. But given the digital age and the benefits it comes with, we have to learn to embrace the dark side of it.
Verizon’s new 2020 Data Breach Report has made it evident that ransomware takes the crown for 80% of all cyber attacks that happen globally. “Digital robbery”, as we know it, has already put the medical industry in a difficult position as we fight the COVID-19 battle.
That being said, the statistics point out that the majority of the ransomware attacks have a pure financial motive behind it, accounting for almost 92% and only about 3% may be for other reasons such as spying or other activities related to business operations.
According to page 16 of the data breach report from Verizon, “Ransomware accounted for 3.5% of unique malware samples submitted for analysis,“
2019-2020 has shown a sharp increase in cyber attacks across the world with phishing owning the top spot on the list of cyber attacks, followed by ransomware being accountable for almost 48% of all attacks in the report. Page 51 of the report suggests, “Ransomware is really taking hold of Education vertical incidents, and has been responsible for 80% of the Malware-related incidents, up from 48% last year,“
The difference between the two types of attacks is that phishing is primarily through sending malicious emails and attachments to collect public information to perform hacks.
Ransomware on the other hand is primarily “Digital Hostage”, when a group of hackers attacks the computer systems of a public or private organization to extort money.
Verizon’s report has also suggested that most companies significantly lack protection against ransomware, making it easy for attackers to infiltrate the victim’s organization’s digital systems.
Surprisingly, the malicious softwares can be rented from third party providers for a cost and the actual group performing the act does not even have to work to create a whole new software from scratch. “They can simply rent the service, kick back, watch cat videos and wait for the loot to roll in,” – mentioned in Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Report.
