Increasingly prevalent state-sponsored and cybercrime group-led cyberattacks have targeted the U.S. and other NATO member countries, according to SC Media.
While most state-backed intrusions against NATO countries were part of Russia's efforts to prevent Ukraine's membership in the alliance amid an ongoing war, China has also deployed cyberespionage operations aimed at compromising Western countries' intelligence and trade secrets, an analysis from Mandiant revealed.
Moreover, intensified attacks have also been launched by financially motivated threat actors, as evidenced by the alarming ransomware intrusions against governments and healthcare organizations, said the report.
"Healthcare institutions in the U.S. and Europe have been repeatedly targeted by both Russian-speaking criminals seeking financial gain and North Korean state actors aiming to fund their espionage activities. The ability of these actors to operate from jurisdictions with lax cyber crime enforcement or extradition agreements, coupled with the lucrative nature of ransomware attacks, suggests that this threat will continue to escalate in the near future," noted Mandiant researcher John Hultquist.
