CERT-IN release Ransomware Report 2022

• CERT-In, under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents.

Important highlights of the report

• Ransomware incidents have gone up by 53% in 2022 over 2021. Not only money, but Geo political conflicts also influenced ransomware attacks this year.
• Broadened Ransomware attacks across critical sectors with increased frequency and complexity of the attacks.
• Lockbit was the most prevalent ransomware variant in India, followed by Makop and DJVU/Stop ransomware.
• New variants such as Vice Society and BlueSky were noticed in 2022.
• IT and IT-enabled services sector was the most impacted sector, followed by finance and manufacturing sectors.
  • Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) ecosystem becoming prominent.
• Makop and Phobos Ransomware families mainly targeted medium and small organizations, while Djvu/Stop variants used for attacks on individuals.

About Ransomware

• Ransomware is a category of malware that gains access to systems and makes them unusable to its legitimate users, either by: Encrypting different files on targeted systems, also known as Crypto Ransomware.
• Locking the system’s screen unless a ransom is paid, also known as Locker Ransomware.