BlackBerry Reports That 1 Million Attacks Target Global Finance in 120 Days
BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today released its latest Global Threat Intelligence Report, revealing threat actors focusing efforts on targeting high-value data held by the global financial sector, with one million attacks logged over the 120 day period. This “death by a million cuts” is revealed to be using mainly commodity malware, which indicates a large number of independent actors targeting the industry in pursuit of financial gain. Critical infrastructure attacks, including those targeting government, financial, healthcare and communications industries, all together accounted for 62% of industry-related attacks over the reporting period, September to December 2023.
The BlackBerry Threat Research and Intelligence team registered a 27% uptick in novel malware to 3.7 new malicious samples per minute prevented by its AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, compared to 2.9 per minute in the previous reporting period. Overall, BlackBerry® cybersecurity solutions stopped 31 attacks every minute, a 19% increase on the last reporting period.
“We’re consistently seeing increased volumes of attack in highly lucrative industries using novel malware,” said Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Threat Research and Intelligence at BlackBerry. “Novel malware typically indicates specific motivations from threat actors towards particular attack targets with intent to evade defences, which are often based on static signatures. We’ve reached a pivotal point where traditional detection methods alone are not enough to combat this increasingly complex problem. AI is already being weaponised by malicious entities, so it must equally be the dominant tool for detection and defence.”
Highlights from the latest BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report include:
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62% of industry-related attacks targeted critical industries: Digitization and the prospect of debilitating national infrastructure attracted notorious gangs and Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) groups who attempt to exploit security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities for varying motives.
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Commercial enterprises also under attack: 33 % of all threats targeted commercial enterprises (including retail, manufacturing, automotive and professional services), with the majority (53 %) of those deploying information-stealing (Infostealer) malware with the aim of accessing highly sensitive data.
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Rapid weaponization of CVEs by Threat Actors: Ransomware gangs were observed taking advantage of new Zero Day vulnerabilities and mass mobilizing against potentially vulnerable targets, with zero-day exploits motivating profiteer groups.
Based on its data analysis, BlackBerry Threat Intelligence and Research predicts that 2024 will bring an increase in attacks targeting critical infrastructure and other profitable segments. VPN appliances will likely remain desirable targets for nation-state-level threat actors and it is anticipated that there will be a continued increase in supply chain cyberattacks targeting hardware and software vulnerabilities. Further, APAC will likely see an increase in attacks from China and North Korea, particularly financially-motivated attacks.
Download a copy of BlackBerry’s Global Threat Intelligence Report at BlackBerry.com, and register to attend our Global Threat Intelligence Report Deep Dive webinar on March 26 to discover more.
