Cyber Events In 2022

2022 was a year full of global events whose impact will be felt for a long time to come. The surprises did not escape any aspect, whether it be political comebacks, wars starting, or even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Cyber attacks have been in the headlines this year, big time. The war between Ukraine and Russia reminded everyone that the cyber world has a significant impact on our day-to-day lives. The sophisticated cyber threats are leading more governments and private companies to invest in cyber security.

It’s time to summarize the cyber events that happened in 2022 and were engraved in our collective consciousness.

Costa Rica Declares A State Of Emergency

In May 2022, after a month of ransomware attacks on government systems, Costa Rica declares a state of emergency. The ransom attacks carried out by the Conti gang began in April, against the Ministry of Economy, which suffered severe damage to the tax and customs collection system. The gang continued to attack other government systems, leading to a partial shutdown of the economy and losses of $30 million every day.

The Healthcare Industry Continues To Be A Target For Hackers

The healthcare industry has always been a vulnerable source of sensitive information. In recent years, attacks on the health system have become more frequent, and 2022 was no different. It is estimated that more than 50 million patient records were compromised in more than 714 reported cyber incidents, an average of about 60 reported cyber incidents per month.

A particularly memorable case occurred in late April for OneTouchPoint, a company that provides technologies that help health insurers and healthcare providers retain patients. The ransomware attack that started with a hack into the company’s servers affected more than 4 million patients.

Complying with the HIPAA regulation that establishes a strict standard for the protection of patients’ information is a step in the right direction to prevent future cyber attacks in the field of medicine in Israel and around the world. Find out all about how to comply with HIPAA regulations.

Cyber Insurance Prices Continue To Climb

The inflation that hit the global economy has made cyber insurance premiums increase significantly this year, a trend that is expected to continue in 2023 as well. Not only has the price of insurance itself increased, but insurance companies demand, and rightfully so, the implementation of more advanced and holistic protection systems as a basic and necessary condition for continued insurance.

Furthermore, many insurance companies do not include in the insurance conditions coverage for ransom attacks, which have become one of the most significant threats, and the most difficult to deal with, following the rise of the ransom attack as a service (RaaS) model.

The Cyber War Between Ukraine & Russia

Since Ukraine’s declaration of an independent country, Russia has been squinting in the direction of what was up until recently part of the Soviet Union. As the years go by, and the world goes through more significant digitization processes, the cyber war between these two has become more significant. Now it seems that there is no separation between the physical and digital war.

The cyber attacks against Ukraine have been going on for years, one of the most famous of which occurred in 2017, when a gang of Russian hackers used the NotPetya virus to attack the Chornobyl nuclear power facility, flooding the websites of Ukrainian organizations, including banks, government offices, telecommunications companies, electricity companies, Public transportation, and critical infrastructure.

Since the war began in February, Ukraine has experienced phishing attacks, DDOS, ransomware, and virus distributions that have disabled critical government systems.

The Russians are also getting hit in this arena – activists who support Ukraine’s right to independence came to her defense and started cyber attacks against Russian targets.

State-Sponsored Cyber Attacks

Beyond the cyber attacks that Russia is launching against Ukraine and its supporters, other countries are making great efforts to enter the online combat arena as part of broader geopolitical moves. Iran, China, and North Korea are the main players in this dangerous game. For North Korea, this is an economic lifeline – because of the country’s commercial isolation from the world, they receive a significant part of the budget from North Korean hacker gangs who transfer the loot to the country. This year one gang managed to steal over $1 billion in crypto to fund their nuclear program.