Worrisome Rise in Nation State Cybercrime Activities, Warns Microsoft

Diving into details

• The report observed North Korean threat actors are highly engaging in crypto theft, which has been the source of its funding for them.
• China was observed extending its cyberespionage attacks to wield greater regional influence in Southeast Asia. 
• Microsoft’s report, furthermore, highlights that sophisticated cyberattacks with the motive of financial gain grew in volume. The two top attack tactics were ransomware and BEC.
• Another worrisome trend is the increase in cybercrime-as-a-service across all threat verticals. 

Some stats your way

• The IT industry accounted for the most attacks (22%) by nation state actors, especially from Russia and Iran. This is followed by think tanks and NGOs (17%) and the education sector (14%).
• During this period, 90% of notifications about Russian threat activity involved customers in NATO member states in the IT, Think Tanks, and NGO sectors. 
• Nation state actors particularly focused on organizations in the U.S. and Britain, however, organizations in the UAE, Israel, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, and Switzerland were not left behind.
• Ninety-two percent of impacted organizations did not enforce effective data loss protection measures, while 84% did not integrate multi-cloud environments into their security operations.

The bottom line