Does Exprivia play the government’s footsie on cybersecurity?

All the details on the new Threat Intelligence Report elaborated by the Exprivia Cybersecurity Observatory which takes into consideration sites of affected companies, public sites of national interest, online press agencies, blogs and social media between April and June 2023

Absolute record of cyber attacks between April and June in our country, but the PA improves in IT security. Word of Exprivia.

This is what the note from the Apulian ICT group underlines regarding the evidence of the new 'Threat Intelligence Report' prepared by its Cybersecurity Observatory, which takes into consideration 129 open sources including sites of affected companies, public sites of national interest, online news agencies, blogs and social media.

According to the report drawn up by Exprivia, between April and June there was a constant increase in cybercrime phenomena, with a total of 672 cases. That's nearly double the previous quarter's 308. To understand the extent of the number of attacks in the second quarter of 2023, just think that the Acn , the National Cybersecurity Agency, in its latest annual report revealed that in 2022 Italy recorded a record number of cyber incidents (1094 in total and as many as 160 towards the Pa). Again with reference to last year, Clusit also detected 188 attacks in 2022, up 169% compared to the previous year. And the most attacked sector was the government sector, with 20% of the accidents.

But now the Exprivia Trend quarterly report signals an inverse trend for the PA, the result of investments in protection policies.

Cybercrime is confirmed as the main threat to online security in Italy, with 617 phenomena and an increase of 142% compared to the previous quarter. The data breach (violations involving the loss or unauthorized disclosure of personal data) with 28 cases and hacktivism (criminal activities aimed at promoting a political or social cause) with 22 are far behind.

Furthermore, the report also highlights the double number of cybercrime phenomena compared to the first months of the year. The Finance sector is among the most affected by hackers and the Entertainment industry is the most exposed.

All the details.

CYBER ATTACKS INCREASE

Specifically, 569 attacks occurred (+196% compared to 192 in the previous quarter) – a number never reached since the Exprivia Cybersecurity Observatory started analyzing the data for the first time (January 2020) – 82 incidents – or successful attacks – down 21% from 104 previous ones, and 21 privacy breaches (+75% from 12 last quarter).

CONSTANT GROWTH OF CYBERCRIME PHENOMENA FOR THE CYBERSECURITY DIRECTOR OF EXPRIVIA

“We are facing a scenario of constant growth in cybercrime phenomena, even if in the face of a record number of attacks, we detect a minimum number of incidents, i.e. successful attacks” commented Domenico Raguseo, Cybersecurity Director of Exprivia.

“An optimistic reading could suggest greater effectiveness of defense systems, as demonstrated by the data in the Public Administration sector. It cannot be excluded, however, that accidents may occur in the next two months, as evidenced by past dynamics. Therefore, it is necessary to wait for the autumn to be sure of how well the hackers have managed to carry out their coups” concluded Raguseo.

THE FINANCE SECTOR THE MOST AFFECTED

According to the experts of the Exprivia Cybersecurity Observatory, the sector most targeted by attackers in the second quarter is once again the 'Finance' sector (financial companies, banking institutions or cryptocurrency platforms), with 56% of cases (377) and a doubling from April to June.

In second place is the 'Software/Hardware' sector (ICT companies, digital services, e-commerce platforms, devices and operating systems) which goes from 99 phenomena in the first quarter to 105. In third place is 'Retail', i.e. that market that includes sales activities by a company to the final consumer, which from the 14 cases recorded in the first three months of the year marks 40 between April and June. The 'Industry' sector closes the ranking with 19 phenomena.

THE NUMBERS OF THE PA

As immediately highlighted, it improves the cybersecurity performance of the PA.

In fact, the 'Public Administration' sector dropped from 89 to 65 cases in the second quarter of the year. According to Exprivia, the result is the consequence of "investments in data protection policies and the result of greater awareness of IT security in public bodies".

DATA THEFT FOR THE MAJOR DAMAGE OF HACKERS

After that, analyzing the main types of damage caused by hackers, data theft maintains the primacy with 63% of total cases (423), a slight decrease compared to 65% in the previous quarter. Data theft is the illegal storage or transfer of personal, financial or proprietary information such as passwords, software codes, algorithms and processes causing serious consequences for the individuals or organizations affected.

In second place, the request for money, with a percentage increase of about 362% compared to the previous quarter. This was followed by outages (the stopping of normal operation of the network, an application or a software service) with 5% of cases, down sharply from 15% in the previous quarter. The violation of privacy, ie the disclosure of data by third parties without the consent of the interested party, stands at 4%.

PHISHING MAIN TYPE OF ATTACK

Phishing/social engineering, i.e. soliciting distracted or unaware users on the net or via e-mail, is still the main type of attack, with 60% of the total cases (406 phenomena compared to 145 in the previous quarter and an increase in 180%). At the same time, attacks via malware (malicious software that compromises or interrupts the use of devices) are also increasing, in second place with 173 cases compared to 104 recorded between January and March 2023.

WHAT EXPRIVIA DOES

Listed on Euronext Milan and active in the development of innovative software technologies and the provision of IT services, Exprivia supports its customers in the Banking, Finance&Insurance, Aerospace&Defence, Energy&Utilities, Healthcare and Public Sector, Manufacturing&Distribution and Telco&Media sectors.

At the beginning of the week, the takeover bid for the IT company announced by Abaco Innovazione, the main shareholder of Exprivia aimed at delisting from Piazza Affari, began.

In the meantime, in the 2022 annual financial report, Exprivia noted that "the first months of 2023 opened with good signals on specialized markets such as aerospace and digital healthcare, also driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity . We plan to continue to use the opportunities offered in Italy by the Pnrr, and to maintain a focus on foreign markets where we plan to strengthen our presence".

THE RACE FOR IRIS WITH FUNDS FROM THE PNRR

In the context of the Pnrr however, last April the ICT group won the tender of the European Space Agency (ESA) for the supply of the Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS) of the Italian satellite constellation Iride on Earth observation . The value of the contract is 25 million euros. Exprivia will create a platform to collect data from over 30 satellites, processing them systematically for the study of natural phenomena.

Still in the aerospace field, Exprivia was awarded the 1.4 million euro European tender, called by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for the visualization of satellite data on earth system phenomena. The project represents a milestone in the European initiative Destination Earth.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/cybersecurity/exprivia-fa-il-piedino-al-governo-sulla-cybersecurity/ on Wed, 26 Jul 2023 13:14:42 +0000.