Cybercriminals have put most of their time into breaking supply chains over the last year. The manufacturing sector has emerged as a top target.
IBM’s annual X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, a report based on threat data and security incidents over 2021, suggests that businesses are being “imprisoned” by criminals exploiting vulnerabilities and deploying ransomware.
Researchers for the tech giant say that phishing is still the most used attack vector. However, there has also been a 33% increase in the use of vulnerabilities against unpatched systems. The report suggests that vulnerability exploits are responsible for 44% of known and reported ransomware attacks.
Attacks on supply chains often have major consequences. Central service providers can be compromised to deploy poisoned software updates to their customer bases, often ransomware is utilised to severe disruption to vendors, putting pressure on companies to pay, or attacks may even be triggered to wreak havoc in the real world, for example targeting utilities or services in a target country.
