RANSOMWARE CONCERNS IN INDIAN IT FIRMS
Why in the News?
- Recent ransomware attack at HCL Technologies occurred within a confined cloud environment, minimizing widespread impact.
- Despite containment, the incident negatively influenced the stock market perception, causing a decline in share prices.
Source: Medium
Growing Threat Landscape in India:
- Indian organizations face an increasing threat of ransomware attacks, with a Sophos study reporting a rise from 57% to 73% victimized organizations.
- 77% of attacked organizations experienced successful data encryption, and 44% opted to pay ransoms, doubling their recovery costs compared to those relying on backups.
- CERT-In’s H1 2022 ransomware report highlighted a 51% increase in incidents, primarily targeting data centers, IT, and TeS sectors in India.
Targeting IT Organizations:
- Reason : Threat actors focus on IT organizations due to their valuable data, including intellectual property, client information, and financial data.
- Effect : Successful attacks on IT firms may lead to a drop in company value, replication of software, and compromise of client data, making them lucrative targets.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a malicious software that allows a hacker to restrict access to an individual’s or company’s vital information and then demands some form of payment (usually Bitcoins) to lift the restriction. |