Microsoft yesterday released its annual report on digital security and hacker attacks, covering the period from July 2020 to June 2021.
The report contains statistics that show that 58% of all cyberattacks detected by Microsoft were carried out from Russia. The success rate of Russian attacks has increased significantly: from 21% a year earlier to 32% in the above period. More importantly, government agencies were targeted 53% of the time, up from 3% in the previous period. These agencies are mainly owned by the United States, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
After Russia, the largest number of attacks came from North Korea, Iran and China. South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam were also active, but on a much smaller scale. Based on attacks across all countries, 21% targeted consumers, 79% targeted businesses, with the most vulnerable sectors being government (48%), NGOs and think tanks (31%), education (3%), intergovernmental organizations (3%), IT sector (2%).
Microsoft stressed that the United States was the most targeted ransomware attack, followed by China, Japan, Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The company says the main reason for the rise in ransomware attacks around the world is because cybercrime as a service is emerging as a mature economy where people can simply buy malicious services from marketplaces.
According to Reuters, Russian hackers who used SolarWinds and Microsoft software stole information about counterintelligence investigations, US sanctions against Russian citizens, and the country’s COVID-19 response.
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