A recent analysis by IBM revealed that ransomware was responsible for almost 60% of attacks on Canadian IBM customers last year.
Indeed, the report showed that ransomware was the main cyberattack type in Canada in 2020, compared to only one in four in 2019.
The popularity of ransomware is due to the group use of double extortion, where attackers threaten to embarrass victim companies by releasing stolen data in addition to encrypting data. It was found out that the Sodinokibi group made around US$123 million globally with this tactic.
Moreover, the report stated that the retail and finance and insurance sectors were the most targeted industries in Canada, followed by government and transportation. Attacks on the healthcare industry doubled since 2019, with ransomware accounting for 28% of these attacks.
It also noted that, with more people working from home, cyberattackers could enjoy lower cyber defences, which made organizations more vulnerable than before.
Hence, the report recommends the following:
- Get in front of threats by leveraging threat intelligence.
- Prepare for attacks with incident response plans and regularly test those plans.
- Double-check the patch management structure.
- Implement multi-factor authentication to protect accounts and add more protection with a strategy of least-access privileges.
- Save backups offline and test restore procedures.
