"Three-Quarters of Cyber Incident Victims Are Small Businesses"

According to security researchers at Sophos, over three-quarters of cyber incidents impacted small businesses in 2023, with ransomware having the biggest impact on these firms.  The researchers noted that the notorious LockBit group made up the highest number of small business ransomware incidents handled by Sophos Incident Response last year, at 27.59%.  LockBit infections were considerably higher than the next highest groups: Akira (15.52%), BlackCat (13.79%), and Play (10.34%).  The researchers in 2023 saw evolving tactics used by ransomware operators, including an increase in the use of remote encryption, whereby attackers leverage an unmanaged device on organizations’ networks to attempt to encrypt files on other systems through network file access.  Additionally, ransomware operators are building malware to target macOS and Linux operating systems.  Sophos researchers have observed leaked versions of LockBit ransomware targeting macOS on Apple’s own processor and Linux on multiple hardware platforms.  The researchers also found that over 90% of cyberattacks reported involved data or credential theft in some form, ranging from ransomware to data breaches.  Last year, nearly half (43.26%) of all malware targeting small and medium businesses (SMBs) focused on data theft.  These were made up of password stealers, keyboard loggers, and other spyware.  The most prominent stealer malware detected by the researchers last year were RedLine (8.71%), Raccoon Stealer (8.52%), Grandoreiro (8.17%) and Discord Token Stealer (8.12%).

Infosecurity Magazine reports: "Three-Quarters of Cyber Incident Victims Are Small Businesses"