India was the most targeted country in 2022 as cyberattacks on government agencies more than doubled, according to a report by Cyfirma. In the second half of 2022, there were 95 per cent more cyberattacks on the government agencies than in the same period in 2021. The number of state-sponsored cyber-attacks in India increased by more than 100 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.
As per the report, the healthcare sector was the most targeted by hackers in 2022, followed by the education, research, government, and military sectors. Additionally, according to the report, an organisation in India was attacked an average of 1,886 times per week in 2022. The most common types of cyber-attacks were phishing attacks, malware attacks, and ransomware attacks. Approximately 78 per cent of Indian organisations experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, with 80 per cent of those attacks resulting in data encryption.
Further, in the period from January to July 2023, the report observed 39 campaigns targeting various industries in India. These campaigns were attributed to groups such as FancyBear, TA505, Mission 2025, Stone Panda, and Lazarus Group. Of these, 14 campaigns were directed by state-sponsored groups from China with the intent of espionage. While about 11 campaigns were planned by hackers backed by North Korea as part of the hardware as a service (HaaS) model. Additionally, 10 attacks originated from Russian threat actors, of which only four were state-sponsored.
