China has instructed banks and insurers to fix any identified loopholes to guard against the risk of ransomware attacks by mid-January. (Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg) 
Hackers last year targeted mining industries in Australia and New Zealand, and continued their focus on renewable energy companies in the US and the European Union, the cybersecurity firm Dragos said in a report. Attackers also increased or accelerated their attacks on energy, food, water, electrical and natural gas sectors, the company determined.
“They’re definitely going after manufacturing a heck of a lot more than electric and oil and gas,” said Robert M Lee, Dragos’ chief executive officer.
Dragos also found that one hacking tool could disrupt tens of thousands of systems that help manage global electricity infrastructure, gas pipelines and water companies. The so-called Pipedream malware, tied to the threat group Chernovite, can be reused against targets in different industries and can hamper a wide variety of industrial systems, Dragos said.
Read more: Ransomware blitz hits over 2,000 computers running old tech
Dragos also underscored that threats against the energy sector and critical infrastructure increased following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Dragos said malicious activity ended up being less profound than expected, it nonetheless said that one unnamed Ukrainian power company still faced a “significant attack”.
To stave off attacks in general, the company recommended organizations create effective response plans, have tools for monitoring their infrastructure and secure access to their systems by implementing two-factor authentication.
The report comes after other findings suggested a downturn in successful extortion-related hacking. Overall, payments to ransomware groups dropped sharply in 2022, with victims sending $456.8-million to hackers, down from $765.5-million in 2021, according to the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.
In recent weeks, ransomware attacks have disrupted derivatives training and encumbered public school systems in Arizona and Massachusetts. BM/DM