Bengaluru topped cyber hitlist in 2018, says study

BENGALURU: Bengaluru faced the highest number of cyberattacks in 2018, according to a report by Quick Heal that was shared exclusively with ET, and other cities including Mumbai, Delhi/National Capital Region and Kolkata also becoming victims to these attacks.“Bengaluru, being the technology hub and the top destination for IT jobs, has become the favourite target for cybercriminals,” said Sanjay Katkar, founder of Quick Heal, elaborating on the findings.“Even if these companies are using technology, cybercriminals find ways since it’s their top target.”69407101 Cryptojacking, which is the illegal use of another person’s computer to mine cryptocurrency, has replaced ransomware as the number one threat for consumers and enterprises.Ransomware, which is a form of malware that locks a user out of files or devices and then demands online payment anonymously to restore access, was reported up to 14 times per minute, according to Quick Heal’s findings, signalling increasing risk. Threats to mobile devices and cryptojacking were also increasing, it said.Consumers are still the most targeted, with an alarming 973 million malware attacks on Windows devices last year, translating to almost 1,900 detections per minute, the report found. On the other hand, Android devices faced relatively lesser threats.69407105 Cyber criminals were targeting compromised websites. Although recognising compromised websites was difficult, a browser warning could act as a precaution, Katkar said.Cybercriminals are now selling malware as a service (MaaS) along with ransomware as a service (RaaS).While cyber criminals have been using various means of conducting cyberattacks, the internet of things (IoT) is fast becoming the latest and rapidly trending means of cyberattack, it said.69407113 “This can be attributed to the relative scalability and simplicity of the millions of devices that can easily be turned into potential victims, to cause cyberattacks of a larger scale and stronger impact,” the report pointed out.Awareness around cybercrimes was still quite low, which is worrying, said experts. Laws, too, need to be made more stringent as convictions in cyber crimes have been low, they said.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2wa9wHw