The security experts were able to use an analysis of around 1,000 domains with the largest email volume to identify the top industries that were particularly hard hit by email cyber criminals.
The Energy Industry Is The Number One Cyberattack Target
Even ahead of the logistics and automotive industries. As part of a country’s critical infrastructure, the energy sector is particularly worthy of protection and is subject to strict legal requirements.
A failure or impairment of supply services would have an enormous impact on the economy, the state and society. Cyber criminals are also aware of this. In addition to threat vectors such as hacked web applications, unpatched and outdated systems as well as unsecured servers, companies should particularly keep an eye on e-mail as a gateway for cyber attacks.
Larger And Professionally Organized Hacking Teams
Hackers tried to penetrate the systems of companies in the energy sector primarily using malicious links placed in e-mail messages. Malicious attachments and phishing emails are also among the preferred types of attack by cyber criminals. Humans are the most popular IT vulnerability among hackers.
With little technical effort and social engineering tactics, the cyber criminals induce employees to click on infected links that download malware or intercept login data that open the gates to hackers for further attacks. Especially with the high legal IT security standards to which critical infrastructures are subject, people are often the one security gap that can destroy supposedly comprehensive protection with a click.
Behind such attacks are often larger and professionally organized hacking teams. On behalf of governments or secret services, they want to gain access to secret information, or put pressure on the affected state in the event of possible conflicts. To do this, it is often sufficient to shut down individual areas in the company by encrypting important files.
However, attacks by smaller cyber criminals gangs are also conceivable. Basically, it stands to reason that the more critical the attacked infrastructure, the higher the likelihood that those affected will pay for a decryption key. In the event of a ransomware attack, the operational process can be continued as quickly as possible.
