{"id":49028,"date":"2022-10-26T17:13:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T17:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/ics-ot\/ransomware-gangs-ramp-industrial-attacks-us"},"modified":"2022-10-26T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T17:13:48","slug":"ransomware-gangs-ramp-up-industrial-attacks-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/ransomware-gangs-ramp-up-industrial-attacks-in-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware Gangs Ramp Up Industrial Attacks in US"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ransomware gangs are hitting the industrial sector hard \u2014 and especially manufacturing companies, with significant spikes in cyberattack activity against US organizations spotted in the third quarter. Meanwhile, emerging ransomware groups are bursting onto the scene, threatening to push the rate of attacks up even higher.<\/p>\n

According to a Dragos Q3 analysis of ransomware attacks on industrial organizations<\/a>, 36% of the recorded cases globally hit North America (46 incidents). This is a significant 10% increase over last quarter, when a quarter of cases affected the region.<\/p>\n

However, the analysis also found that the rate of attacks globally remained flat quarter over quarter \u2014 128 incidents for Q3 vs. 125 in Q2.<\/p>\n

The majority (68%) of observed incidents were aimed at the manufacturing sector.<\/a> Out of the confirmed attacks (i.e., those publicly reported, seen in the firm’s telemetry, or confirmed on the Dark Web), 88 were against that segment, especially those producing metal products (12 attacks).<\/p>\n

Nine percent of attacks targeted the food and beverage sector (12 incidents), followed by oil and natural gas (6%, or eight incidents) and the energy and pharmaceuticals sectors (collectively making up 10% of attacks, with seven and six incidents respectively). The chemical, mining, engineering, and water and wastewater systems segments had just one attack each.<\/p>\n

In terms of the actors on the industrial stage, the LockBit gang was behind more than a third of all global incidents (35%), while some other known names focused on the energy sector (Ragnar Locker<\/a> and BlackCat\/AlphaV<\/a>, notably). But the quarter also saw the rise of some emerging actors, like Sparta Blog, BianLian, Donuts, Onyx, and the slow-burning Yanluowang<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In all cases, various groups seemed to have specialties, Dragos noted, including:<\/p>\n