India witnessed over 4.36 lakh cyberattacks from Russia, US, others in Jan-Jun: F-Secure

Indian users became victim to cybercrimes from Russia, United States, China and Nerlands, with over 6.95 lakh incidents recorded between January to June 2018, according to cyber-security firm F-secure. 

Interestingly, top 5 countries that cyber-attackers from India targeted were Austria, Nerlands, United Kingdom, Japan and Ukraine, with number cumulatively tallying up to 35,563 in said period, as per report.

F-Secure, in its report, said insights are based on data from "honeypots".

company said it has deployed more than 41 such "honeypots" across globe that "serve as sitting ducks for cybercriminals" and enables collection of latest malware samples/shell scripts and new hacking techniques.

se "honeypots" are basically decoy servers that emulate IT environment of a business. To attackers, se look like actual servers of real companies with weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

This method, according to F-Secure, helps gain critical insights on attack s, popular targets, sources, volume, and TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures).

"Such insights are collected by deliberately allowing potential attackers to gain unauthorised access to emulated services of a server, and n studying attack path to point that attacker realises it is a honeypot," it ded.

report said top five source countries that targeted India included Russia (2,55,589 attacks), followed by US (1,03,458), China (42,544), Nerlands (19,169) and Germany (15,330) - totalling 4,36,090 attacks.

On or hand, Indian cyber-attackers targeted a total of 12,540 attacks toward Austrian organisations, Nerlands (9,267), UK (6,347), Japan (4,701), and Ukraine (3,708), report said.

report said India ranks 21st in global tally with 6,95,396 attacks hackers across various countries. However, India took 13th spot in terms of hackers initiating attacks with 73,482 such incidents.

Globally, UK was biggest source country with a total of 97,680,746 attacks this year, while US was top destination country with 1,10,10,212 attacks, it said.

"Our public honeypots are a valuable source of threat intelligence, and an integral part of infrastructure that powers our various security offerings, including our Rapid Detection and Response Service," F-Secure vice president of cybersecurity products R&D Leszek Tasiemski said.

Tasiemski ded that " relatively higher number of inbound attacks on Indian honeypots also reflects how fast-digitising country is becoming more lucrative for global cybercriminals".

"We are garing and analysing all pertinent data to ensure that our customers stay protected given dynamically evolving threat landscape," he said