The booming black market has made cybercrime the third-largest economy in the world.

Cybercrime has become the world's third largest economy, following the US and China, as stated by the World Economic Forum. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, it is estimated to cause a global loss of $8 trillion by 2023 and $10.5 trillion by 2025.

The ease of access to networks and ransomware online is driving the growth of cybercrime, as stated by Gordon in an interview with Cybernews. Threat actors do not require technical expertise to launch devastating cyber or ransomware attacks, she added.

Gordon further stated that the ready availability of tools has led to an increase in the number of players involved in cybercrime.

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) systems, used in healthcare, education and business, has created new opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit security vulnerabilities.

The economy of cybercrime is growing with the involvement of financially motivated criminals, nation-state actors that aim to gain materially by targeting critical infrastructure, and politically motivated hacktivists, as seen in the case of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Ransomware surge

The demand for ransom has dramatically increased and cybercriminals have become more avaricious following a high-profile attack on Colonial Pipeline, which resulted in the company paying $4.4 million in extortion in 2021.

A recent study by Sophos showed that the average ransom payment has risen to $800,000. Nozomi's latest report also warns that the prevalence of cyber insurance may be contributing to this increase.

Cybercriminals are conducting reconnaissance on cyber insurance claims policies and tailoring their ransom requests to match the amount of a cyber insurance payout,” Nozomi’s report read.

The report from Nozomi suggests that companies should prioritize investing in cybersecurity measures such as prevention, protection, and remediation, rather than relying solely on insurance. Furthermore, some insurance companies have started to refuse to pay ransoms.

Although some victims may view paying the ransom as the quickest solution, others are opting for alternative methods. As a result, metrics from a report by Chainalysis showed that revenue from ransomware decreased by 40% in 2022.

Attacks aimed at the Internet of Things (IoT)

The World Economic Forum's (WEF) State of the Connected World report found that globally, 73% of experts lack trust in the security of connected devices.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported a 15.1% increase in IoT-targeted attacks in the first half of 2021, with a total of 1.5 billion attacks recorded. Nozomi's research, using "honeypots" (devices configured as IoT devices), revealed that malicious botnets often use default credentials like usernames and passwords due to lack of changes by organizations. The study also found that the most common source location for these attacks was China, followed by the United States and South Korea. It is important to note that these locations only indicate where the compromised devices are located, not necessarily where the threat actors originate from.

Critical Infrastructure Attacks

Fixing issues or implementing upgrades in real-time data-based operation technology environments, often found in critical infrastructure that is highly sensitive to disruptions, can pose challenges.

Organizations dealing with critical infrastructure, such as petrochemical facilities, the power grid, or pipelines, face a dilemma when it comes to implementing upgrades. On one hand, they need to upgrade their systems to improve security and prevent disruptions. On the other hand, the very act of upgrading can cause disruptions in the real-time data environment, making it challenging to find the right time to make changes. To address this challenge, there must be a prioritization plan in place to identify the most critical upgrades and implement them without causing any major disruptions.

Healthcare facilities have become a prime target for cybercriminals due to the highly sensitive nature of their data, which poses a significant and unique threat. In the healthcare sector, a cyber attack could result in the loss of life, according to Nozomi's report.

The transportation sector has seen a rise in attacks, with railways being a particularly attractive target for various types of threat actors, such as cybercriminals, nation-states, and hacktivists. This presents a concerning situation as organizations must now be wary of multiple threat groups instead of just one targeting critical infrastructure. The conflict in Ukraine has led to an increase in politically motivated attacks on critical infrastructure, utilizing highly destructive malware aimed at destroying sensitive data and causing harm. The only defence against such attacks is robust and up-to-date backups.