India experienced approximately 7 lakh malware attacks in 2022, up from 6.5 lakh in 2021, with the banking sector being the most vulnerable to these attacks, totalling 44,949 incidents, a report showed on Wednesday.
The top six industries affected by malware in India in 2022 were banking, government, manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and finance.
However, there was a slight decline in the number of malware detections across the six critical sectors, indicating that appropriate measures are being taken, according to the report by global cyber-security firm Trend Micro.
In 2022, there were a total of 14,983,271 ransomware threats globally, with 38.06 per cent of the attacks targeting Asia, and 10.51 per cent of those attacks being detected in India.
"The report reveals a 16 per cent increase in malware attacks, underscoring the need for ongoing vigilance and collaboration to safeguard critical industries such as banking, government, and manufacturing in India," said Vijendra Katiyar, Country manager for India & SAARC, Trend Micro.
In 2021, the top three sectors affected by ransomware were banking, government, and manufacturing, but the trend shifted in 2022 when the Indian government sector became the most affected, followed by manufacturing and banking.
Interestingly, while the number of attacks on the Indian banking sector decreased significantly from 15,928 to just 626 ransomware alerts, the number of attacks on the government sector remained relatively stable, and the manufacturing sector saw an increase from 994 to 1,178 incidents in 2022, the data showed.
Globally, the cyber-threat detections hit a record 146 billion in 2022.
The report mentioned a massive 55 per cent increase in overall threat detections in 2022 and a 242 per cent surge in blocked malicious files, as threat actors indiscriminately targeted consumers and organisations across all sectors.
There was an 86 per cent increase in backdoor malware detections. These backdoors primarily targeted web server platform vulnerabilities.
"A surge in backdoor detections is particularly concerning in showing us their success in making landfall inside networks," said Jon Clay, VP of threat intelligence at Trend Micro.