According to K7 Lab’s “Cyber Threat Monitor Report”, Chennai recorded the highest number of cyberattacks in the country during the Q4 2019-20. Chennai stood at 42%, followed by Patna at 38% and Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata at 35% each as per the report.
Threat actors continued to exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software and operating systems in this quarter. Windows XP and Windows 7 has been identified as the most at risk as Microsoft has stopped providing updates and patches to these versions.
Since SMEs in Tier-I cities, are still ill-equipped to handle cyberattacks, threat actors predominantly targeted SMEs by exploiting vulnerabilities caused by the sudden shift to working from home.
A newly discovered vulnerability – CVE-2020-3142, has been identified that lets a user join password protected meetings without a password in Cisco’s Webex.
Among Tier-I cities, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata recorded the highest rate of infections, while among the Tier-II cities, Patna registered the highest infection rate at 38% followed by Guwahati, Jammu and Bhubaneswar.
“SMEs and SOHOs must invest more in ensuring the safety of their IT infrastructure. We are seeing an increasing trend of threat actors targeting enterprises with complex viruses, Trojans, and even ransomware” said the report.
The company predicts that the number of COVID-19 themed attacks and complex Trojan attacks will continue to increase in the next quarter. To help mitigate these threats, K7 Computing advised people to keep their systems updated with the latest patches, avoid using pirated software, install and use a reputed antivirus product.