Palo Alto Networks, a cyber security company based in Santa Clara, California recently released a report on ransomware and extortion attacks globally.
The report shows that ransomware attacks have increased overall, and for Malaysia, the number of such attacks has increased by 37 percent in 2022 alone.
Palo Alto Networks, through their Unit 42 securities group, has reported that throughout the year, a total of 11 cases have been reported involving several important sectors, including education as well as manufacturing and manufacturing.
After a hacking attack has been carried out, and the company or institution's data has been locked, these hackers will then blackmail the company owner, CEO or customer and force them to pay a ransom to get the data back.
In the Asia Pacific region, the report said that a total of 302 ransomware attacks were recorded, and this recorded an increase of 35 percent compared to the previous year.
The report also singled out the Lockbit 3.0 hacker group from Russia as the main mastermind behind most of these attacks, and they are seen to have started around early 2022, during the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
It is also reported that while hacking attacks typically only attack corporate and government companies, there are also groups targeting hospitals, schools and small companies and forcing them to pay ransoms to get their data back.