India 2nd biggest target of cyber criminals in Asia Pacific in 2020: IBM

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India was the second most attacked country by cyber criminals after Japan in Asia Pacific in 2020, according to an IBM report released on Wednesday. In 2020, IBM Security X-Force observed attackers pivoting their attacks to businesses for which global COVID-19 response efforts heavily relied, such as hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as energy companies powering the COVID-19 supply chain.

"India was the second most attacked country in the Asia Pacific. Attacks on India made up 7 per cent of all attacks X-Force observed on Asia in 2020. "Finance and insurance was the top attacked industry in India (60 per cent), followed by manufacturing and professional services," the report said.

Ransomware was the top attack type, accounting for around 40 percent of total cyber attacks. In addition, X-Force observed digital currency mining and server access attacks had hit Indian companies last year.

"We also witnessed cybercriminals using relief efforts and public health information as spam lures including targeted attacks on critical components of the vaccine supply chain. These all remain issues in 2021," Sudeep Das, Security Software Technical Sales Leader, IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia, said in a statement.