Hacker attacks will cost the world up to $9.5 trillion in 2024, according to a report by Check Point presented at the CPX conference in Vienna. According to experts, if measured as a country, cybercrime would be the third largest economy in the world today, after the USA and China.
Last year, the global cost of damage from cybercrime was $18 million every minute and will increase by 15 percent annually over the next two years, reaching $10.5 trillion annually by 2025
– Check Point notes in its report.
Hackers are increasingly using sophisticated techniques to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities (a vulnerability that has not yet been disclosed) to launch ransomware attacks. Check Point Research analysis shows that in 2023, there were over 5,000 victims of overt ransom attacks, which means an increase of 90 percent compared to 2022. Ransomware also already constitutes over 10 percent of all malicious programs attacking computer networks in the world.
In an era of constant innovation in cybercrime and growing tensions involving state-affiliated actors and hacktivists around the world, organizations must prepare for growing threats.
– says Maya Horowitz, vice president of research at Check Point Software. “Investing in stronger defenses with robust AI-powered cybersecurity measures delivered in the cloud is key to effective protection against evolving threats,” he adds.
Poland the most attacked country in the world? Russian hackers on the attack
The 2024 Cyber Security Report also shows that hacktivism flourished after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In the last year, its state-supported variant has become more intense. This mainly concerns Russia, which is involved in cyber activities related to geopolitical conflicts.
Check Point’s analysis shows that Poland has become one of the favorite targets of Russian hackers linked to the Kremlin. Our country is expected to experience up to 1,000 serious cyberattacks a week, and the favorite method used by cybercriminals are DDoS attacks.
The DDoS technique (Distributed Denial-of-Service) consists in bombarding the attacker with as many queries as possible (e.g. attempts to open a website) at the same time. If this number is large enough, the victim’s infrastructure will be overwhelmed and eventually fail. Causing such a failure is the goal of DDoS attacks.
Our analysts, based on data from partners, have defined and noticed that – when it comes to one of the types of attacks, the so-called DDoS attack – recent weeks indicate that we are the most attacked country in the world
– he explained at the beginning of February this year. Major General Karol Molenda, commander of the Cyberspace Defense Forces Component,
During the CPX conference in Vienna, experts noticed that apart from the NoName and APT groups, already known for their close connections with the Kremlin, the Winter Vivern group has recently been particularly active. It has been operating since at least the end of 2020 and – as researchers note – its attacks are characterized by a high level of sophistication. Winter Vivern mainly attacks targets in Poland, Ukraine and Georgia.
However, Poland copes exceptionally well with attacks from Russian hackers. In the report “The Cyber Defense Index 2022/23” published by the “MIT Technology Review” magazine, our country was ranked sixth in the world in terms of the level of cybersecurity.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
