Kochi cybersecurity startup serves Singapore and Canadian governments; flags data theft at universities, business groups in Kerala | Kerala News

Kochi: The first half of 2024 saw a significant increase in cyberattacks across various sectors in the country. The targets include a university, two colleges and several corporate groups in Kerala, according to a report by a cybersecurity firm based in Kochi and Delaware, USA.

The India Breach Report, compiled by Technisanct using Falconfeeds, its threat intelligence platform for cybersecurity professionals, lists a total of 593 cases it identified from January to July. The incidents are categorized as data breach, data leak, ransomware and access sale/leak.

According to the report, data breaches topped the list of cyberattacks with 388 incidents in six months, followed by 107 data leaks. The report identified 39 cases of ransomware and 59 cases of access sale/leak.

“There was a significant increase in cyber incidents from March to April, peaking in May, followed by a slight decline in June and a more significant decline in July. This surge in activity coincided with the general elections from April 19 to June 1, 2024, and highlighted the opportunistic behavior of threat actors taking advantage of times of heightened national activity,” the report said.

According to the report, the increasing number of data breaches highlights the weaknesses in data protection measures.
“The thriving black market for unauthorized access to corporate and government networks underscores the importance of strong access control measures, regular monitoring and rapid response to unauthorized access attempts.

The report cites education and research as the most affected sectors. From January to June 2024, India’s government and public sector were the second most affected sectors by cyberattacks, with 71 victims.

These included military, defence, law enforcement and government agencies from various states and union territories. The affected states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The victims of the cyber attackers in Kerala include a university, a major jewelry chain, three schools, two colleges, two food brands and a clothing company.

The ransomware landscape in India is seeing significant activity from various groups including LOCKBIT 3.0, DARKVAULT, BianLian, Kill Security, RansomHub, Abyss, CL0P, MALLOX, Snatch and STORMOUS.

The report states that on June 25, 2024, the data of the volunteers of the National Disaster Management Authority was stolen. In this case, 93,000 lines of information such as name, gender, blood group, date of birth, email address and address were stolen. Data of the police in some south Indian states was also stolen.

Explaining the significance of the report, Nandakishore Harikuar, CEO of Technisanct, said the rising number of cases underscores the need to be vigilant and aware of the dangers of cybersecurity breaches “that have been on our doorstep for some time now.”

Technisanct’s flagship product, Falcon Feeds, is a threat actor-focused security monitoring tool. It serves over 200 customers, mainly in Europe and the US, by monitoring 4000 threat actors. The company’s clients include a department of the Singapore government, the government of Quebec, Canada, KPMG and PwC.

Nandakishore said Technisanct was founded with a mission to democratize cybersecurity and make it accessible to all. “I made a foray into the world of cybersecurity as part of my research in 2015-16. I was shocked when I found the credit card details of a local from Changanassery on the dark web in 2016. That’s when I realized that the threat was at our doorstep,” he said.

Nandakishore, a native of Cherthala who founded Technisanct after working in the IT sector and co-founding a few tech startups, said India is becoming an innovation hub and has huge opportunities in the vast field of cybersecurity. “In 2019, I attended a conference in Israel. 30 banks attended and they asked us who would buy a cybersecurity product from India. Now we have 12 customers from Israel,” he said.