Cybersecurity, Gubiani (Check Point), ‘tsunami of ransomware attacks’

The global tsunami of ransomware attacks shows no signs of slowing down by 102% in 2021 compared to last year, showing that the strongest threat – and which also involves Italy – is the so-called ‘Triple Extortion’. “Between January and June 2020 and 2021, in Italy we observed a 40% increase in ransomware attacks. This shows how the ransomware pandemic is still strong and that hackers are exploiting every situation” reveals David Gubiani, Regional Director to Adnkronos Se Emea Southern of Check Point Software Technologies, on the occasion of today the presentation of Check Point of Cpx Tech Masters, the event dedicated to southern Europe of the Israeli cybersecurity player. “Since ransomware is big business and many organizations still pay the required ransoms, I fear the situation will only get worse. In fact, if a sum is redeemed, the more the hackers’ R&D efforts to launch sophisticated attacks are financed,” he clarifies. Gubiani. According to Check Point’s Cpx Tech Masters, the number of organizations affected by ransomware globally has more than doubled in the first half of 2021 compared to 2020 and that the healthcare and utilities sectors are the most targeted since early April. 2021, Triple Extortion is also the new worrying threat. This is a picture in which the newly formed Italian National Cybersecurity Agency has entered and Gubiani underlines that “all of us IT security professionals welcome this news with great enthusiasm”. “The establishment of the Agency – he observes – will allow all Italian organizations to be more united than ever in the fight against cyber crime”. And, he adds, “the fact that the state has applied for the creation of this agency puts the digital security of citizens and businesses first”. “This news – underlines the Check Point manager – represents a strong gesture of awareness on the part of government leaders, with a clear message: to make IT security a priority. In fact, the ACN responds to both the EU’s request to the members of a national connection with the new Cybersecurity Competence Center and Network based in Bucharest, Romania, and the need to protect the essential functions of the Italian State from cyber threats and to develop the capabilities to prevent and fight them “. Prevention, in fact, adds Gubiani, “is the first move, which every company should implement and consolidate internally. And to testify this are the data that emerged from the Check Point Cpx Tech Masters. Since April, the Cpr researchers have noticed in fact that, on average, more than 1,000 organizations are affected by ransomware every week. This follows a significant increase in the number of organizations affected so far: 21% in the first quarter of 2021 and 7% from April until now. This growth has led to a incredible overall increase of 102% of companies affected by ransomware compared to the beginning of 2020. “With the pandemic the world of work has been disrupted and revolutionized and – explains Gubiani – the cybersecurity landscape has acted accordingly, facing new challenges and priorities “.” According to most organizations, the ‘new normal’ “that came with the pandemic” is going to last and what were only supposed to be rapid changes to networks and the security infrastructures will probably be permanent “. Gubiani explains that “this series of changes has further ‘deperimetralized’ what was already a poorly defined outline of the Italian company. No new technologies have been developed. Cloud and Vpn were already there, companies had to increase them to allow work. remotely, and the need has arisen to protect them effectively “. “There has been no news even on the endpoint front: the techniques to protect them already existed, for example sandboxing and agents capable of monitoring activity on the web in real time and identifying unknown threats” Gubiani said, underlining that ” However, companies need to understand the lesson taught by this situation. Some have responded effectively, while others have hesitated. ” “The National Cybersecurity Agency will now regulate a series of aspects in Italy in a decisive manner and will help companies to undertake the much desired technological evolution. The objective it must aspire to is to induce organizations to comply with precise regulations. , thus protecting themselves, their employees, but also their customers and partners, ”notes the Check Point manager. “The strongest threat, which also involves Italy, is called ‘Triple Extortion’ which is an attack methodology that affects victims of third parties, such as customers, external colleagues and service providers, as a result of a sophisticated ransomware attack aimed at to the organization and to the employees. These more ‘secluded’ victims are powerless in the face of this threat and have a lot to lose if the attempted attack takes a wrong turn “finally warns Gubiani. (by Andreana d’Aquino)