According to Accenture’s Cyber Incident Response Update, cyber intrusion activity jumped 125% in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period last year. The report saw that web shell activity (the use of small pieces of malicious code to gain remote access and control) as the main contributor to the exponential increase.

Accenture’s Cyber Investigations, Forensics & Response (CIFR) collected the data directly from clients that experienced cyber incidents.

The United States is still the most targeted country, accounting for 36% of incident volume, followed by the U.K. (24%) and Australia (11%). The report also showed that consumer goods and services as the most targeted when it comes to industries, with 21% of cyberattacks, followed by industrial/manufacturing (16%), banking (10%, and travel and hospitality (9%).

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“Many organizations today are only securing their core corporate systems and not fully protecting their supply chain, subsidiaries, and affiliates. That’s why it’s critical for companies to have a holistic plan to cover their entire ecosystems,” said Robert Boyce, who leads Accenture’s Cyber Investigations, Forensics & Response business globally. “Industries that previously experienced lower levels of cyberattacks during the pandemic ― such as consumer good and services, industrials, travel & hospitality, and retail ― should reevaluate their cybersecurity posture as increased consumer activity in these industries present renewed opportunities for cybercriminals.”

Ransomware

Ransomware is the leading type of attacks with 38% hurled against organizations globally. It is followed by backdoors at 33%.

REvil (Sodinokibi) has been very active as reported previously accounting for 25% of ransomware. The insurance industry, according to the Accenture report, is the most targeted with 23% of ransomware attacks, followed by consumer goods & services (17%) and telecommunications (16%).

Companies with annual revenues between $1 billion and $9.9 billion accounted for more than half (54%) of ransomware and extortion victims, followed by companies with annual revenues between $10 billion and $20 billion (20%).