Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 recently released the Ransomware Retrospective 2024: Unit 42 Leak Site Analysis and Incident Response report 2024. As part of the Ransomware Retrospective, they studied 3,998 leak site posts from various ransomware groups. Leak sites are platforms where threat actors publicly disclose stolen data as a means of coercing victims into paying ransom.

Key findings from this investigation: Unit 42 saw a 49% YoY increase in multi-extortion ransomware attacks from 2022 – 2023 globally. In India, the manufacturing sector has been the most targeted industry for ransomware extortion in 2023. Of the 3,998 leak site posts from 2023 globally, LockBit ransomware remains the most active, with 928 organizations accounting for 23% of the total. LockBit is also the most active group in APAC and India (note: this was before the recent law enforcement disruption of LockBit). At least 25 new ransomware leak sites were observed in 2023; of which Akira led the way. 

Anil Valluri, MD and VP, India and SAARC, Palo Alto Networks, said, “In India, the Manufacturing sector has emerged as the primary target for ransomware attacks over the past year. This unsettling trend underscores the critical vulnerabilities within the Indian manufacturing sector, where limited visibility into operational technology (OT) systems, inadequate network monitoring, and suboptimal cyber-hygiene implementation have left organizations exposed. Organizations must implement enterprise-wide Zero Trust network architecture to create layers of security that limit an attacker from successfully moving laterally around the network.”

The 3,998 posts from ransomware leak sites represented a 49% increase compared to 2022, where 2,679 posts were observed globally. This increase can be attributed to zero-day exploits targeting vulnerabilities for MOVEit Transfer SQL Injection and GoAnywhere MFT, among others.

As further evidence, when reviewing the number of compromises reported by ransomware leak sites, sporadic spikes were observed (see figure below). These loosely aligned with periods where ransomware groups began exploiting specific vulnerabilities.

Unit 42 2024 Incident Response Report: Speed of Exfiltration + Vulnerabilities Driving Activity

Unit 42 analyzed more than 600 incidents from 250 organizations for the 2024 Unit 42 Incident Response Report. This investigation went beyond ransomware leaksite posts into the overall casework volume. While phishing has historically been a popular tactic with attackers, the report found that it is declining, but only sort of.

From a one-third share of initial access incidents in 2022, phishing has dropped to just 17% in 2023. This indicates a potential de-prioritization of phishing as cybercriminals adapt to more technologically advanced – and perhaps more efficient – infiltration methods. More advanced threat actors are moving away from traditional and interactive phishing campaigns to less noticeable and possibly automated methods of exploiting system weaknesses and pre-existing credential leaks. Other key findings from the report include:

●      More-Sophisticated Threat Actors Are Gaining Initial Access Differently: There has been a discernible rise in the exploitation of software and API vulnerabilities. Exploiting such vulnerabilities accounted for 38.60% of the initial access points in 2023, up from 28.20% in 2022.

• Threat Actors Grab Data Indiscriminately: In 93% of incidents, threat actors took data indiscriminately rather than searching for specific data. This is up from 2022, when 81% of cases involved non-targeted data theft. In 2021, it was even lower at 67%. The surge points to a growing trend among cybercriminals who seem to be casting a wider net, gathering any data they can access rather than expending effort to locate and extract particular datasets.
• Extortion tactics to maximize yields: Interestingly, while the rate of harassment and other extortion tactics w.r.t. Ransomware has remained steady over the past few years, the rate of harassment in cases where payments were made has jumped by 27x since 2021.
• Higher demands, lower payouts: In 2023, median ransom demands increased from $650,000 to $695,000 (3%↑) but median payouts decreased from $350,000 to $237,500 (32%↓). This can be potentially attributed to organizations calling-in Incident Response teams with negotiation capabilities (which fewer did in the past).

Huzefa Motiwala, Director, Systems Engineering, India and SAARC, said “While the surge in ransomware incidents is concerning, there are glimmers of hope amidst the challenges. The data reveals a promising shift in organizations’ response strategies, with a notable increase in median ransom demands countered by a decrease in median payouts. Since organizations are more willing to call-in Incident Response teams, threat actors are happy to take the path of least resistance. Which, in most scenarios, is to grab what they can get, and move on.”

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A Palo Alto survey findings revealed that, although India saw a remarkable 75% increase in cybersecurity budget allocation for 2023 compared to the previous year (one of the highest increases in the APAC region), it also experienced the highest number of disruptive cyber attacks.

Palo Alto Networks surveyed 200 Indian IT decision-makers, CTOs, CIOs, and Senior Directors to understand the state of cybersecurity in India. The respondents belonged to sectors such as Banking & Finance, Essential Services, Telco/Tech/Communications, Retail/Hotel/F&B, Transport & Logistics, and Manufacturing. 

India faces a substantial risk of cyber attacks targeting its critical infrastructure, public sector, and essential services, according to the findings. A notable 67% of Indian government and essential service entities reported encountering a surge of over 50% in disruptive attacks.

Key findings from the survey include:

Industries:

• 66% of Indian manufacturing firms faced increased risks from unsecured IoT devices connected to the network, far more than other sectors.
• 83% of Transport and Logistics organizations perceive their risk level as high or very high.
• An overwhelming 95% of businesses in India claim they are actively moving to an increasingly automated security stack.
• 48% of Indian Public, Transport & Logistics organizations and 50% of Manufacturing organizations sectors believe 5G adoption will widen security loopholes.
• A higher than average 34% of Indian banking and financial services say cloud attacks will disrupt business. 
• 69% of Indian Telcos have faced newfound risks from increased reliance on cloud-based services and apps.

Cybersecurity risks:

• 45% of Indian businesses saw more than 50% increase in disruptive attacks – the highest in APAC. 
• 67% of Indian government and essential services experienced more than 50% increase in disruptive attacks.
• At 35% Indian organizations are more concerned about social engineering attacks than the APAC average (29%). 
• 60% of Indian organizations are concerned about malware (ransomware, spyware, adware) attacks the most. 57% of Indian Telcos are concerned about Ransomware the most. 
• 94% of Indian organizations perform regular assessments and forensics for OT related cybersecurity incidents, this is positive news. Likely driven by the fact that 89% of these organizations have IT and OT cybersecurity professionals working under the same/ combined team, higher than the SEA average of 82%.
• On the other hand, 24% of these organizations have their OT systems connected with their Enterprise IT network (not fully air gapped or protected via a dematerialized zone); a definite cause of concern.

Security outlook:

• 68% of Indian respondents say ChatGPT will positively impact business tasks like content creation and report generation.
• India leads APAC in cloud migration, with 80% of businesses already having a large proportion of infrastructure on the cloud.
• Over 80% of Indian businesses discuss cybersecurity at the board level at least every quarter. 
• 42% of Indian organizations say they are adjusting their cybersecurity strategy to adopt cloud security. 
• 94% of Indian organizations said they have a 5G strategy in place. However, 45% of these organizations said that proper segmentation of 5G networks was of top concern to them (highest in APAC). 

“Securing essential services networks is crucial to protect critical infrastructure and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of essential services, safeguarding public safety and national stability. Our findings show that the transport, manufacturing, and public sectors have borne the brunt of advanced attacks. As India embraces digital transformation, it is mission critical to have a cybersecurity-first approach,” said Anil Valluri, Managing Director & Regional Vice President of India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks.

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The usage and connectivity of operational technology (OT) is rapidly growing as are the number of cyberattacks on OT environments. These attacks can disrupt operations, causing damage that can reach far beyond revenue and reputation to supply chain, human safety and critical infrastructure. To help companies keep their OT environments secure, Palo Alto Networks has introduced the Zero Trust OT Security solution. 

A key component of the solution is the new cloud-delivered Industrial OT Security service, which can be easily enabled without the need to install additional sensors — by any of the 61,000+ active customers of Palo Alto Networks network security products: hardware and software Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) and Prisma SASE. 

OT devices can be hard to secure because many lack built-in security and were not designed to be patched. In addition, high uptime requirements limit the ability to do regular security maintenance. OT environments are also at risk as organizations adopt new technologies like 5G, which enable mass connectivity, and open up remote access.

“As industrial OT systems and IT systems become more interconnected, so does the size of the attack surface available to the adversary. Defending against increasingly sophisticated threats requires expanded security strategies that can provide visibility, context, and Zero Trust capabilities across both OT and IT networks, devices, applications, and users,” said Dave Gruber, principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “The Palo Alto Networks solution embraces this unified security model, promising to help protect complex OT environments.”

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