Orange Cyberdefense is now releasing its Security Navigator 2024 report, which presents an analysis of developments in cyber threats and cybercrime for the past year (period October 2022-September 2023).
Among the results, Orange Cyberdefense has identified a total of 129,395 incidents during the period, which is an increase of 30 percent from the same period last year. The majority, 43.6 percent, of the activities originate from external actors while 37.45 percent are initiated internally in operations.
Although the total number of incidents has increased during the year, the number of confirmed security incidents has decreased. However, the confirmed incidents have been of a significantly “higher” quality, i.e. more advanced and sophisticated in their nature. Three industries together account for over two-thirds of all confirmed incidents: manufacturing 32.43 percent, retail 21.73 percent, and professional services 21.73 percent. scientific and technical services 9.84 percent.
Of the total number of incidents, most are categorized as, almost a third (30.32 percent) as “Hacking”[1]. This is an increase from last year when the category accounted for 25 percent of incidents. Malicious code has historically been one of the two most common types of incidents. This year, however, malicious code has slipped to third place, accounting for 12.98 percent of incidents. In second place, with 16.61 percent of incidents, is the category of misuse.
– Cyber threats are developing very quickly but are also becoming increasingly advanced and specialized, making it even more difficult for companies and businesses to identify and protect their digitally dependent operations, says Peter Larsson, CTO Orange Cyberdefense, Sweden. At the same time, we see a development where cyber threats and cybercrime are exploited for more purposes, to access data, for financial gain but also to conduct influence and hacktivism. A more diverse range of actors and approaches among threat actors places higher demands on smart, intelligent and insight-driven cybersecurity solutions, while business and corporate management must elevate security issues to a strategic and overall level in order to be able to manage risks and security strategies in a good way.
Cybercriminal actors undergoing strong development and change
One area that is both evolving and growing rapidly is cyber extortion. Over the past 12 months, the number of victims of cyber extortion has increased by 46 percent globally, to an all-time high. 40 percent of the attacks affected large companies with more than 10,000 employees. 23 percent affected medium-sized companies and 25 percent affected small businesses.
[1] According to the “VERIS framework for incident classification”
There is a lot of turbulence among the actors involved in cyber extortion. In 2023, Orange Cyberdefense identified 31 new cyber extortion groups that were not previously known. At the same time, 25 groups disappeared while 23 groups that were active in previous years continued to engage in cyber extortion.
Geopolitical developments have also made some cyber extortion actors increasingly politically driven, and overall the number of cybercriminal groups that are politically or ideologically motivated has increased during the period. Their purposes are often espionage, sabotage, disinformation and blackmail or a combination of several of these areas.
You can download the full report here: https://www.orangecyberdefense.com/se/security-navigator
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