Here are five of the most notorious threat actors for the financial services industries across APAC and the world.
While financial institutions strive to be resilient to ransomware attacks, they are not immune. Such attacks are rapidly-evolving to target financial institutions globally and in the APAC region.
Last month, cybersecurity firm Check Point ranked India second for ransomware threats in the world, and Sri Lanka ranked third. However, a study by US-based Temple University only found 28 reported cyberattacks in Asia, indicating a large degree of underreporting.
These and other findings were reported by Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), the only global cyber intelligence-sharing community solely focused on financial services.
The report noted that ransomware operators have publicly claimed successful attacks against eight financial institutions around the world in 2020, three of which are banks.
According to FS-ISAC, even large institutions with robust cyber defences are still vulnerable to attacks, especially through their third-party suppliers if they are key targets such as Software AG, which was the victim of CLOP ransomware in October.
New ransomware trends
Traditionally, ransomware attacks just involved holding a system or data for ransom, and releasing the bounty upon payment. The latest developments now include:
- Extorting victims by threatening to publicly name them and publish sensitive data online
- Auctioning off stolen data on the dark web
- Ransomware-as-a-Service, where less-technical criminals can buy ransomware kits from more sophisticated threat actors
Top 5 ransomware
The report notes the top five ransomware ploys in the last 12 months:
- Ryuk: 45
- Maze: 14
- WastedLocker: 4
- Troledesh: 3
- Sodinokibi: 3
FS-ISAC Global Head of Intelligence Teresa Walsh said, “Ransomware is a particularly nefarious cyber threat that has the potential to cause large material losses to victims, which can include financial institutions. In the APAC region, ransomware represents a rising number of attacks, though they often go unreported. Threat intelligence is crucial in anticipating and preventing attacks and can also help firms mitigate the fallout from a successful attack.”
The firm is now extending invites to their 2020 Asia Pacific Summit (virtual), starting 1 December 2020, featuring a mix of live and on-demand sessions covering relevant topics around Fraud; Governance, Risk Management and Compliance; Digital Currencies; Advanced Technologies and Techniques; and Cloud/Virtual environments.
