The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine led to a significant boost in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against EU targets, European police cooperation agency Europol said on September 13 in a new report.
The report, “Cyber Attacks: The Apex of Crime-as-a-Service” said that the war of aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s internal politics have uprooted cybercriminals. pushing them to move to other jurisdictions.
Europol said that malware-based cyber-attacks remain the most prominent threat to industry.
Ransomware affiliate programs have become established as the main form of business organisation for ransomware groups, the report said.
Phishing emails containing malware, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) brute forcing and Virtual Private Network (VPN) vulnerability exploitation are the most common intrusion tactics.
Europol said that it provides dedicated support for cybercrime investigations in the EU and thus helps protect European citizens, businesses and governments from online crime.
Europol offers operational, strategic, analytical and forensic support to member states’ investigations, including malware analysis, cryptocurrency-tracing training for investigators, and tool development projects.
Based in Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the Analysis Project Cyborg focuses on the threat of cyber-attacks and supports international investigations and operations into cyber criminality affecting critical computer and network infrastructures in the EU.