Il recent cyber attack occurred in Italy brought cybersecurity back into the limelight in our country.
Cyber attacks have grown exponentially in recent years. The evolution of attack technologies coupled with a lack of countermeasures by defenders has given rise to a high level of cyber-insecurity.
According to the last one Clusit report, the Italian Information Security Association that collects, compares and analyzes global data relating to accidents, in the former six months of 2022 they registered 1.141 cyber attacks (+ 8,4 % compared to the first half of 2021). A del% increase 53 compared to 2018.
190 serious attacks per month
Cyber attacks, during 2022, have been in 190 media per month. The worst month was March when the maximum peak was reached with 225 attacks.
In last 5 years have occurred beyond 8.285 serious cyber attacks. Over a third of attacks (33%) are critical, while nearly half (45%) are high severity.
I factors that led to this increase can be found in the digital transformation (strongly accelerated by the pandemic), from economic crisis and from conflict in Russia and Ukraine which showed off the new offensive cyber capabilities. Indeed, the attack methodologies become more and more innovative and sophisticated forcing the defenders to chase each other to always find new solutions. Great weight to the increase in attacks must also be given to the lack of awareness of IT risks in companies and public bodies.
The most used attacks and techniques
La main cause of attacks remains the Cybercrime (78%) or the computer crime committed through the use of new technologies to obtain access to information and earnings. But they grow too espionage (13%, +2% compared to 2021), the information warfare (5%, +3%) and phenomena of hacktivism, digital activism, mainly used in support of the Russian-Ukrainian war conflict.
Sending malware remains the first attack technique, used the 38 % sometimes. The Ransomware, which encrypts the files on the victim's computer, making them unreadable and no longer usable without a decryption key that is given by hackers only upon payment of a ransom, goes up as main cyber threat. Among other main techniques grow the Phishing/Social Engineering (13%, +3% compared to 2021) and the exploitation of Vulnerability (11%).
The most affected sectors
Growing cyber threats are affecting all industries across the board. Those most interested they are the sector sanitary (12%), public (12%) ICT (11%) and financial (9%). Attacks against manufacturing are on the rise (6%, +2% compared to 2021) and against newspapers and multimedia (5%, +2%).
The region more impressed is to rely onEurope (26%) all-time record, with a 5% growth compared to 2021 as attacks on theAmerica (38%, -7%) and theAsia (8%, -4%).
Le critical infrastructure are increasingly targeted by attacks with a significant increase in the last three years. Since May 2022, theItaly, and other countries with positions of support for Ukraine, have begun to undergo variable cyber attacks, by pro-Russian groups (such as the hacker collective killnet), directed towards critical infrastructures. In particular the attacks were aimed at compromise of public administrations (including the systems of the Government, the Ministry of the Interior and Defense), leading press bodies, banks, ports, airports, logistics.
The Italian situation and the risks for SMEs
The Italy è particularly impressed da cyber attacks because of the big number of SMEs present which constitute the economic backbone of our country (higher number than in other European countries). SMEs have become one of the main targets of hackers who see in them an easy target to hit and sufficiently profitable: il 37 % of them stated that they had suffered a computer episode against the European average of 28%.
It is necessary to make Italy less vulnerable to cyber threats intervene in favor of SMEs to equip them with adequate means and knowledge to deal with cyber threats. L'Enisahas invested heavily over the past year to provide SMBs with practical tools and advice to counter threats. But this cannot be enough.
In the 2021 cybersecurity market has reached the value of 1,55 billion euros, +13% compared to 2020. Le big business they are increasing your budget for IT security, while the SMEs do not have the same possibility. The ratio of spending to cybersecurity e GDP but remains limited0,08 %), in last place among the G7 countries. The Pnrr it can thus represent an opportunity for Italy to fill some gaps in the cyber field.
Il cybersecurity theme, also thanks to the creation of theNational Cybersecurity Agency (ACN), desired by the former prime minister Mario Draghi, is increasing in importance but we are still far from making it one of the cornerstones of the company.
It remains important to continue to invest in this area to protect your data and your business.
