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- Confuse the Networks: software failures at the end of the year were most frequently recorded in retail and logistics
Confuse the Networks: software failures at the end of the year were most frequently recorded in retail and logistics
Retail and logistics were most likely to experience problems with failures of their software at the end of 2024, analysts from cybersecurity companies told Izvestia. Retailers, in particular, experienced more failures during the sales period due to the use of outdated hardware and software. The increased activity of buyers, fraudsters and hackers also affects the stability of work. Companies try not to publicly disclose cases of failures, experts said. Izvestia investigated why logistics chains were still interrupted at the end of 2024.
What were the large-scale software failures
In early November, problems in the infrastructure of a major telecom operator left residents of several regions without Internet and mobile communications. This caused disruptions in the work of couriers, delays in online payments and failures in the coordination of emergency services.
At the end of the same month, customers of a major bank faced the inability to authorize in the application and make payments. This was especially painful for small businesses, which at the height of the sales season were unable to receive payments and pay for deliveries on time.
In December, a large chain of stores experienced failures in their cash register systems, causing customers to stand in lines and stores to incur losses. Later, the online retailer's platform was unavailable , resulting in delays in New Year's Eve orders and financial losses for small businesses.
IT companies told Izvestia about this, noting that they could not disclose the data of their clients.
As noted by analysts of Monk Digital Lab (provides services in the field of corporate IT monitoring), IT failures can paralyze entire industries and undermine user confidence. According to their calculations, in Q4 2024, the number of software failures in Russian companies increased by 32% year-on-year.
"This figure exceeds the indicators of previous quarters in terms of failure growth," the company said.
Such cases of failures are almost always closed, companies do not share them publicly unless they are obliged to do so by law, for example, in the case of cyberattacks, Kai Mikhailov, head of information security at iTPROTECT, explained to Izvestia.
- Usually, incidents related either to hacking or to ordinary malfunctions look like stopping part of business processes for different periods of time for a company. It is this downtime that determines the loss the company will incur, " he explained.
According to him, it can be a failure of some minor systems, which delays the company's activity, or - in more unfavorable cases - there can be a complete stop of document flow and data loss.
Monk Digital Lab attributed the increase in the number of failures at the end of the year to the withdrawal of foreign software vendors from the Russian market.
"As a result, Russian companies were deprived of technical support and regular updates, which led to failures in information systems," the company said. - The geopolitical factor and the increasing number of cyberattacks on the IT infrastructure of Russian companies and services arealso strongly influenced."
Analysts pointed out that the number of failures caused by the use of raw solutions as well as self-written software is increasing.
"Due to the need to implement new solutions in a short period of time, there was an insufficient level of testing and verification of integration with existing systems, especially often observed in the financial sector," the company said.
Open DDoS
DDoS attacks are one of the frequent reasons that lead to the failure of organizations due to the inaccessibility of their web resources for users. Kaspersky DDoS Protection expert Vyacheslav Kirillov told Izvestia about it. However, companies that have built competent protection and correct traffic filtering have nothing to fear.
The total number of DDoS attacks in the fourth quarter of 2024 increased by 32% compared to the same period last year. Attackers were most interested in organizations in the financial industry, as well as representatives of e-commerce. Botnet attacks were the most popular.
- The abnormal number of attacks occurs against the backdrop of increased user demand for resources in the run-up to the holidays: traditionally, the last days of the year see an increased load due to the high activity of the population on the Internet, " the expert pointed out.
Where were the most failures by the end of the year
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the most disruptions were observed in retail (26% of the total number of disruptions), financial industry (18%) and logistics (14%).
"Retailers experienced a high number of disruptions due to the use of outdated hardware and software during the busy period of the popular Black Friday sale, as well as in preparation for the New Year," the analysts explained. - Disruptions in this industry lead to inaccessibility of goods, as well as to large reputational and financial losses".
Increased user activity in the run-up to the holidays may lead to disruptions, Anton Chemyakin, head of the analytical department of Servicepipe (specializing in information security and protection of online resources from DDoS, bots and targeted attacks), confirmed to Izvestia.
- Firstly, it is the increased activity of customers who make orders to please themselves and their neighbors. Secondly, it is an attempt to collect data on the prices of competitors, which in the fight for holiday budgets of buyers are becoming more frequent and powerful, - he explained. - It should be understood that no limited and inept automated collection of information from sites with the help of a program or service, so-called parsing, can create a load on the resource, many times higher than the user.
Financial organizations, according to analysts, also experienced serious difficulties due to the use of old solutions during the increased consumer activity during Black Friday and in preparation for the New Year, when the volume of financial transactions increased significantly.
And software failures in logistics organizations led to downtime and significant financial losses, experts say.
In the fourth quarter, the number of failures in the retail industry increased by 42% compared to the same period last year, in the financial industry - by 37%, in the logistics sector - by 28%. The number of failures in Russian companies will continue to grow in 2025.
- The equipment of foreign vendors will become even more obsolete, which will lead to an even greater increase in failures, " said Nikolay Ganyushkin, Managing Partner of the IT company. - In order to reduce the number of failures and ensure stable operation of information systems, Russian business representatives need to organize full cooperation with associations of domestic hardware and software vendors to be able to receive technical support and updates adapted to the Russian market.
In addition, the retail and finance sectors remain extremely attractive to fraudsters and hackers, the experts added.
- As with all spheres with live circulation of money, especially private individuals. Fraudsters try to find flaws in processes and forge letters and notifications from companies pretending to be them. In this way, they force the user to act in favor of the attackers," emphasized Kai Mikhailov.
In addition, there may be malicious DDoS attacks to temporarily disable a competitor for holiday budgets or to extort money, reminded Anton Chemyakin.
- In general, the growth of both legitimate and illegitimate activity at the end of December is a familiar phenomenon that repeats itself every year, " he said.
As software import substitution continues, server supply difficulties and hacker attacks become more frequent, the number of failures is growing, summarized Kai Mikhailov.
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