Kaspersky revealed on Monday that more ransomware groups are using bruteforce to attack more businesses and that cyberattacks against remote workers in Southeast Asia are going down.
Data from the cybersecurity company showed that attempts to attack companies in Southeast Asia using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) dropped by 49% from 149,003,835 bruteforce attacks in 2021 to more than 75,855,129 last year.
All six (6) countries in Southeast Asia have seen a drop in attacks.
In 2019, there were only 65,651,924 RDP attacks in the region. That number jumped to 214,054,408 in 2020 when most of the workers were forced to leave their offices temporarily and work from home full-time.
In a statement, Kaspersky’s General Manager for Southeast Asia, Yeo Siang Tiong, said that moving to either a pure face-to-face or a hybrid face-to-face and remote environment caused the drop.
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He said fewer people are working from home in the area now than when the pandemic was at its worst in 2021 and 2022. However, the executive warned that it is still very early for those who used to work from home to say they are safe from bruteforce cyberattacks.
Yeo Siang Tiong said that experts had seen more modern ransomware groups using RDP to get their first foot in the door of the business they are trying to attack.
To minimize the possibility and effect of ransomware attacks from RDP bruteforce, Kaspersky’s security experts also recommend deploying a comprehensive defensive concept like the Kaspersky Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform that helps businesses in their fight against cyber attacks.