It is not just the war in Ukraine that is putting global economic growth at risk. There is in fact another “invisible” and “underground” conflict that every year causes economic damage equal to four times the Italian gross domestic product. And the “cyber war” that is fought with cyber attacks: 2,049 only in 2021 with an increase of almost 10% compared to the previous year, for a monthly average of 171 attacksthe highest value ever recorded.
To detect it is the 2022 report made by Clusit, the Italian Association for Information Security. Clusit’s classification is also based on an assessment of the impact levels of individual incidents, which takes into consideration image, economic, social aspects and repercussions from a geopolitical point of view. And “attacks are growing in quantity and quality,” the researchers explain. In 2021, 79% of the episodes detected had a “high” impact, compared to 50% last year. In detail, 32% was characterized by a “critical” severity and 47% “high”. Against these percentages, attacks with “medium” (-13%) and “low” (-17%) impact decreased.
The damages estimated for 2021 are 6 trillion dollars (6 times the 2020 estimate). For Andrea Zapparoli Manzoni, member of the Clusit Steering Committee, “this is a dramatic growth, with a two-figure annual worsening rate, for a value already equal to 4 times the Italian GDP. It is no longer possible to postpone the adoption of effective countermeasures and the necessary investments. The resources allocated by the National recovery and resilience plan In our opinion, they will have to be managed with stringent governance from a cyber security perspective of all the digitization projects envisaged, finally enhancing the cyber skills of the country’s human resources “.
But what is it purpose of cyber attacks? There is not only classic cybercrime, but also espionage or information warfareO raids to manipulate public opinion and push propaganda. The Clusit Report also frames the potential objectives: in the first place there is the government / military one, with 15% of total attacks, then the IT sector (hit in 14% of cases and stable compared to 2020), multiple objectives ( 13%, down 8%) and healthcare (which represents 13% of the total targets hit, up 2%). 8% of the total attacks in 2021 were instead aimed at the education sector.
Attack techniques focus onuse of malware (computer viruses) and in particular of ransomware, able to block every function of the system they infect (it is a procedure that usually serves to ask for a ransom). But there are also traditional ones phishing campaigns through infected messages in emails.
According to Clusit, 45% of attacks hit the American continent in 2021 (down 2% compared to 2020). Attacks against Europe, on the other hand, increased, exceeding a fifth of the total (21%, + 5% compared to the previous year), and against Asia (12%, + 2% compared to 2020). The situation in Oceania (2%) and Africa (1%) remains substantially unchanged. On the other hand, attacks on multiple locations are decreasing, accounting for 19% of the total (-5% compared to 2020).
Regarding the I.taliain 2021 they registered over 42 million security eventswith an increase of 16% compared to 2020. The analysis of Fastweb Security Operations Center integrated in the Clusit report. Continuation is among the most relevant trends of 2021, explains the report growth of malware and botnetswith a number of compromised servers and devices that marks a net increase of 58%.