ST. PETERSBURG, September 5. /TASS/. The number of cyberattacks in CIS countries increased in the second quarter of 2024, with almost three-quarters (73%) of them targeted at Russia, according to a study presented at the Positive Tech Day event in St. Petersburg.
"Attackers have increasingly turned their attention to the region, with 2.6 times more attacks recorded here in the second quarter of 2024 than in the same period last year. At the same time, Russia accounts for nearly three-quarters of these attacks. Kazakhstan (8%) and Belarus (7%) are in second and third place, respectively. In addition, the number of advertisements related to the CIS on the dark web (a segment of the Internet used for buying and selling illegal goods and services - TASS) increased by 35% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year," the study said.
The majority of attacks inside the CIS were directed against government agencies (18%), industry (11%), and telecommunications (10%). They are carried out by different kinds of hackers, ranging from data sellers on black markets to state-sponsored cyber spies.
As in the rest of the world, malware and social engineering are the main cyberattack methods in the CIS. Meanwhile, the share of DDoS attacks on organizations in the CIS is significantly higher than the global figure: 18% in the CIS versus 8% globally. Experts say this discrepancy is due to the tense geopolitical situation in the region and the emergence of a large number of new hacktivist groups.
According to Positive Technologies, 26% of cyberattacks in the CIS in 2023 and 2024 were carried out by hacktivists - cybercriminals driven by political or social causes. The goal of many such groups is to completely disrupt compromised infrastructure by encrypting or deleting data. Telecommunications companies (23%) and government agencies (17%) were most commonly victimized by hacktivists.
In Russia, industrial companies (11%), telecommunications companies (10%), government agencies (9%) and IT companies (7%) were the most targeted. In Kazakhstan, the media (19%), government agencies (12%), financial organizations (12%), and telecommunications (7%) bore the brunt of cybercrime during the survey period. In Belarus, one in five cyber attacks was directed at government agencies (22%), while industrial enterprises (14%) ranked second in the number of attacks.
"In general, the trend can be observed in almost all countries: hackers are attacking facilities in the abovementioned industries. Firstly, these sectors are of strategic importance to the economy. Second, these organizations store large amounts of confidential information, primarily personal data and information that constitutes a trade secret. Therefore, the three sectors are targeted by different groups of attackers - from information sellers on shadow markets to cyber spies collecting intelligence," Yana Avezova, senior analyst at the Positive Technologies research group, told TASS.