Concerns about Russia’s war on Ukraine and possible cyberattacks against allies such as the United States dominated cybersecurity news throughout 2022.
Even before Russia invaded in February, cybersecurity experts were preparing for an online attack. Russia had some early success, but Ukraine has shown that it can not only recover and rebuild, but also control the messages coming out of war zones to neutralize Russia’s disinformation campaign. rice field.
Western countries and their companies operating in Ukraine appear to have survived largely unscathed so far as the war drags on, but some experts say an attack remains a possibility. .
Meanwhile, defenders of computer systems of all kinds continued to deal with the ransomware threat, which was increasingly hitting US schools, in addition to traditional targets such as critical infrastructure. He also worked on lingering problems caused by vulnerabilities in widely used open source software and cyberattacks aimed at stealing data for profit.
Below is a rundown of the most important cybersecurity news for 2022.
war breaks out and lingers
Almost ten months after it began, the war in Ukraine shows no signs of ending.observer says Ukraine fought back brilliantlyboth digitally and physically.
Prior to the invasion, analysts had warned: cyber war It will be one of Russia’s favorite tactics. Among the potential targets are the Ukrainian power grid and critical infrastructure. And such attacks could target allies and other countries as well, they said.
After all, Russia has done it before.of Not Petya The attack, attributed to Russia, crippled computers across Ukraine in 2017. The malware also spread to remote and unintended targets in Ukraine, locking files in a manner similar to ransomware. However, upon closer inspection by an expert, it was discovered that its true purpose was not to make money, but to destroy data.
That’s not to say that cyberattacks aren’t unfolding. For example, a data erasure malware launched by Russia crippled the Ukrainian military’s ability to communicate during the first days of the invasion. But the Ukrainian recovered fairly quickly.
cyber armageddon, but not unleashed. Instead, Russia has opted for dynamic warfare, recently attacking critical infrastructure and leaving millions of Ukrainians regularly without access to heat, electricity and water. Whether things will change as the anniversary approaches remains to be seen.
Ransomware Threat Continues, School Moves
The federal government has made strengthening the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure a priority this year, in the wake of the 2021 ransomware attacks. Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA.
These attacks, which caused shutdowns and sparked panic buying among consumers, show exactly what widespread chaos a targeted ransomware attack can wreak.
Despite heightened awareness, the attacks continue. According to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, the percentage of users attacked by targeted ransomware has nearly doubled in the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period in 2021.
Organized gangs and other cybercriminals are also moving to newer, smaller, less visible targets such as school districts large and small.
Over Labor Day weekend, the Los Angeles Unified School District was hit with a ransomware attack. Schools weren’t forced to close, but it was later revealed that cybercriminals stole unspecified school district data and made it public.
Ransomware attacks also shut down School in Albuquerque, New Mexicoin January and November in two different Michigan counties.
Software supply chain concerns
Although technically discovered in the last few weeks of 2021, Log4j software bug For much of the past year, security experts have been scrambling. It also revealed the amount of software built from open source components.
If left unpatched or unfixed, there is a serious security flaw discovered in the Java logging library Apache Log4j that poses a huge risk to the Internet. Vulnerabilities in widely used software can be exploited by cyber attackers to take over computers and his servers, making everything from consumer electronics to government and corporate systems vulnerable to cyberattacks. may be exposed.
Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said at the time of its discovery, the full scope of the vulnerability, which affected tens of millions of internet-connected devices, was a major threat to her career. said it turned out to be the worst he had seen in the
Most companies have patched the issue, but attackers continue to try to exploit the vulnerability, according to experts.
A series of information leaks
Cybercriminals looking to infiltrate systems and steal data from businesses and consumers continued to gain momentum this year. There was no shortage of data breaches.
Violations at companies including uber, microsoft, news company When last pass Everything made headlines this year.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s third quarter report, 1,291 data breaches were recorded in the first nine months of this year, affecting approximately 166.8 million people. While that may seem like a lot, this number is well below the full year 2021 of 1,862 breaches and 298.2 million people.
As in the past few years, the majority of known cause breaches have resulted from cyberattacks involving some type of phishing or business email compromise, the center said.
