In Brazil, hackers prefer retail to industry, says report – 02/28/2023 – Tech

The retail sector was the most targeted by hacker attacks in Brazil in 2022, contrary to the global trend of targeting the industrial area. The country concentrated 67% of the threats detected in Latin America.

The conclusion is from the 2023 edition of IBM’s annual “X-Force Threat Intelligence Index” report. The Brazilian cut will be released this Tuesday (28) and was brought forward to the Sheet.

The global analysis again points to the industry as a prominent target of hacker attacks, registering 24.8% of cases. One of the reasons for the preference is the potential for disruption of investees. Having the machines stopped can cause a lot of damage, which increases the chance of giving in to criminal requests.

In the Brazilian case, however, retail corresponded to 31% of attacks (8.7% worldwide), followed by finance and insurance (19%) and energy (also 19%).

“Typically, attackers tend to focus their efforts on industries and companies with the best relationship between the ease of success of an attack and the potential for financial return in case of success of an attack”, says Roberto Engler, security leader at IBM Brasil , to justify the preference for the sector.

“On the other hand, due to these successful attacks in the retail industry, we could observe a significant improvement in the maturity of the security posture”, says the expert.

In 2022, one of the most notorious cases in the country involved Americanas. The group’s websites and applications, such as Americanas.com and Submarino, were offline for days after a hacker attack.

According to the IBM study, most cybercrimes in Brazil target data structures: theft (32%), leaks (22%) and destruction (22%). These tactics are usually associated with extortion, one of the main points highlighted by the global report as it appears in 27% of cases.

In these cases, it is common practice for criminals to take advantage of possible fines that companies can take in cases of leaks to threaten to expose stolen data.

Ransomware, which consists of blocking access to information and charging a ransom to return it, remains on the rise and was present in 20% of intercepted threats in Brazil (17% worldwide).

According to the report, phishing (use of false messages) was the gateway in 41% of attacks in the world. In Brazil, there was also emphasis on improper access through vulnerabilities in remote access services, present in 33% of threats.

These gaps gained prominence with the pandemic. With more workers at home, companies have started to adopt more services that allow remote work, which has increased the possibilities for criminals.

“Although the overall percentage of people working remotely has declined as the effects of the pandemic ease, the entire infrastructure created to enable remote work is still (and should) be in place,” says Engler.

In January, a survey by Kaspersky, specialized in cybersecurity, carried out at the request of Sheet showed that malware (malicious program) detections were down 12% year-over-year. The low, according to experts, comes from a scenario with companies better prepared to defend themselves, but also from more selective criminals and more costly attacks.

The drop follows a surge in cybercrime, which has taken advantage of vulnerabilities created by a world that has become more online overnight due to restrictions imposed by the coronavirus.

Journalist traveled at the invitation of Huawei