Malware attacks in India increase by 11%; 22% jump seen in ransomware

Malware attacks in India rose by 11 per cent while ransomware cyber attacks jumped by 22 per cent in 2024, reflecting the escalating nature of cyber threats for businesses, a report by SonicWall said.

Malware attacks rose by 11 per cent to 13,44,566 in 2024 from 12,13,528 in 2023, the 2024 SonicWall Mid-Year Cyber Threat Report said.

Internet of Things (IOT) attacks went up by 59 per cent in the last one year to 16,80,787 in 2024 from 10,57,320 in 2023, it stated.

While ransomware attacks went up by 22 per cent, India saw a surge in crypto attacks by 409 per cent, the report said.

Organizations today confront a dynamic threat landscape where threat actors continually innovate to outpace enterprise defenses, SonicWall Vice President, APJ Sales Debasish Mukherjee said.

At least 12.6 per cent of an organization's annual revenues were at risk to cyber threats as businesses endured on average 1,104 hours of critical attacks during a span of 880 working hours, the report said.

Cyber security measures protected businesses from a potential of 46 days of downtime.

The report stated that a total of 78,923 never-before-seen malware variants were identified in the first five months of 2024. The threat landscape remains complex, with over 500 strains of new variants discovered each day, it said.

Globally, total malware volume rose 30 per cent in the first half of 2024, seeing a massive 92 per cent increase in May alone, it said.

Cryptojacking dropped 60 per cent in most parts of the globe, with the exception of India, it added.