Experts spoke about the goals of cyber attacks on business infrastructure

Last year, almost half of cyber attacks occurred on corporate infrastructure, according to the results of a study by the Megafon Incident Monitoring and Response Center, which analyzed recorded threats against customers.

Analysts noted that in 48.3% of the incidents, the attackers tried to make changes to the companies' IT systems. Such actions often precede more serious attacks and can lead to the compromise of the entire infrastructure. The purpose of 28.7% of cyber attacks was to gain access to management systems and confidential data. In 18.9% of cases, hackers conducted network intelligence — they scanned the infrastructure to find vulnerabilities.

"As for virus threats, despite the relatively low overall percentage (4.1%), they remain a serious problem," Megafon stressed, adding that attackers are improving malware distribution tools. They mainly use information-sharing programs (disguised as existing applications; the goal is to steal confidential data) and ransomware programs (encrypt files and damage infrastructure; the goal is to get a ransom for restoring access).

According to experts, 9.5% of all such incidents are critical for companies and require an immediate response.

Megafon noted the growing interest in Russia in cyber incident monitoring systems. It is demonstrated by manufacturers of industrial goods, organizations from the field of IT and telecommunications, agricultural and agro-industrial enterprises. "In modern conditions, the interest in security monitoring services is due to both stricter regulatory requirements and increased cyber attacks. In addition, attackers are actively implementing artificial intelligence technologies into their tools. AI automates intelligence processes, generates malicious code, and adapts attacks to specific defense systems. This leads to attacks becoming more technologically advanced and their consequences more devastating," the company stressed.