Last December, Union Minister Rajiv Chandrasekhar mentioned in the Parliament that about twelve lakh cases related to cyber security have been reported in the country. These numbers can be seen as an indication of increasing cyber attacks around the world, especially in India. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) ransomware attack was one of the biggest in this series and shook the nation. Digital payment system, billing, smart lab and many other services in the in-patient and out-patient category were severely affected by this cyber attack. More than that, it is suspected that the health information and private information of billions of patients and others have been leaked. Its scope is still not fully available. Even if the services are restored, a major concern remains how the private information leaked by this attack could be misused.

In the past few years, when the Covid pandemic took the world by storm, cybercriminals took advantage of this opportunity to target certain industries or services. Internet-based services in the fields of online education and health should be mentioned among them. These two needs are indispensable for the human race in any environment. Because of that, there was a huge demand for the services in this sector during the Covid period in a way that no one even thought about till then. It is safe to say that cybercriminals have really taken advantage of this opportunity. Ransomware attacks have then been unleashed, ranging from the leaking of personal information by offering enticing or tempting content via email, to the detriment of many businesses, industries, individuals, and even nations.

Government and military facilities were another important area favored by cyber attackers last year. These were targeted at an alarming rate of an average of 1,500 attacks per week. The Ukraine-Russia war is believed to have led to this in many ways. This can be considered as a great example of cyber quotation universality.

∙ Some of the most important cyber attacks the world faced last year

1. The private and non-personal information of Twitter users was stolen and then put up for sale on some hacker sites. Around 50 lakh users were affected by this attack. These hacker groups leaked valuable information by exploiting a security loophole in the Twitter application. This was later confirmed by Twitter.

2. In August, the Finnish Parliament website was down due to an attack by some hacker groups. Before this, there were reports of cyber attacks targeting various organizations in Finland. It is said that Russia is behind this and the cyber attacks were related to Finland’s NATO accession.

3. Over twelve lakh credit card information has been published on dark web sites and some hacker forums. The information of cards with validity till 2026 was leaked.

4. The April cyber attack disrupted several critical services of the Costa Rican government’s finance department.

The hacker group, which took over the department’s computer network, demanded a ransom of $10 million. When this was refused, the hacker group invaded the networks of many other government departments. Russian hacker group Conti is believed to be behind the attacks.

The scale and frequency of the attack forced the government to declare a state of emergency.

A number of covert and overt cyber attacks between these countries have been reported in the Russia-Ukraine war climate. Cyber attacks targeting power supply centers and nuclear reactors, which are critical infrastructures, have become a regular news item. What is the other side of all this that is worrying is that we cannot rule out the possibility that such attack methods and technical aspects, which have been used flawlessly, can be sold to other countries and subversive forces.

Cyber quotations are becoming active for an individual, group or country if they have the money to spend and don’t pay for the legal system. The number of people buying their  services has also increased significantly even if the buyers are not very technologically savvy. Incidents like these point to the need for IT security guidelines, governance practices and round-the-clock monitoring for government, health, military and essential online services, just as the army is on round-the-clock vigilance at the country’s borders. Let us pledge together to dream and work towards a new cyber security world.

What is a ransomware attack?

Ransomware attack refers to the process of exploiting any security loophole in a computer network to infiltrate, expand its presence, seize more powers, inject harmful software into the network through a backdoor, secure complete authority, withhold information or logins, and demand a large amount of money to release it. A judge in such cases requires the bailout to be paid in Bitcoin. Because of this, it is very difficult to reach the people working behind it. Not only that, there is also a situation where sometimes a country is at the helm of such organized attacks.

∙ What is the Dark Web?

The dark web is a network of the Internet itself that is accessed using special software and protocols. Activities are also kept confidential and private as much as possible. Transactions outside the scope of the legal systems of many countries take place within it. Similar to the dark streets of cities, most of the people who roam here are cybercriminals or hackers. Then the dark web is visited by those who bid for and buy their services and the cyber police who monitor their activities.