Cyber Expert Reveals Public Applications Become The Main Target Of Cyber Attacks In 2024

Illustration of mobile applications (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Kaspersky Incident Response analyst reports provide insight into cyberattacks investigated by Kaspersky's team in 2024.

According to the report, apps that can be accessed by the public such as websites or mobile apps appear as the main entrance to cyberattacks, covering 39.2 percent of cases by 2024.

In addition, legitimate user accounts, such as email accounts or social media accounts, are also easy targets of cybercriminals. Where 31.4 percent of attacks were successfully carried out by stealing or breaking into these accounts. This figure increased significantly compared to 2023.

Kaspersky experts also suspect that many cybercriminals are buying stolen account information on the black market (darknet). This information they then use to launch bigger attacks, such as ransomware attacks.

This trend is then even more dangerous with the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), where hacker groups use illegal access to launch larger attacks.

The data also reveals that victims in these cases are often infiltrated before, which causes credentials to leak without immediate detection.

The cyber threat continues to grow relentlessly, with attackers adapting their methods to exploit the most vulnerable points in the company's defense, said Konstantin Sapronov, Head of the Global Emergency Response Team at Kaspersky.

Therefore, Sapronov emphasized the importance for organizations not only to strengthen their immediate security measures but also to foster a culture of proactive and adaptive incident responses that can overcome these emerging risks.