Though enterprises in India have several leaps in the field of AI and machine learning, enterprise security was a point of major concern. Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) companies faced the most number of threats, with over 40 per cent of the threats targeting the industry, according to Seqrite, the enterprise arm of Quick Heal Technologies threat Report Q3 2018 on Wednesday. The underlined growing risk those escalating evolution of the threat landscape poses to Indian organizations faced more than 2.6 crore cyber threats during the third quarter of 2018 -- translating to over 2.8 lakhs threats every day

The most worrying statistic as revealed by the report was the sheer volume of threats that organisations across sectors faced. Seqrite detected more than 2.6 crore threats targeting Indian enterprises during the three-month period – translating to a per day detection rate of over 2.8 lakhs threats.

According to the report, ransomware, exploits, PUA, adware, infectors and worms remained popular attack vectors for cybercriminals, but what was interesting to note was the growing threat posed by cryptojacking. Seqrite detected over 24,000 Cryptojacking hits on a daily basis during Q3 2018, underlining the growing popularity of this relatively new threat.

Another interesting trend mapped in the report was the distribution of attacks across different industries. IT/ITES companies faced the most number of threats, with over 40% of the threats targeting the industry. Other key sectors such as manufacturing (17.88%), education (12.56%), and hospitality (9.17%) were also deemed to be at risk.

Cryptojacking attacks are a form of cyber-attack in which hackers hijack the infected system's processing power to mine cryptocurrency, remain undetected for a long time and can often be used as a platform to launch other complex attacks.

Speaking on the report, Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Quick Heal Technologies Limited said, “There is no denying that enterprises face an unparalleled security challenge today. Growing interconnectivity has demolished traditional security perimeters. Every endpoint, every node, every device connected to enterprise networks has become a point of entry for attackers looking to steal invaluable information and disrupt business operations. Attacks are becoming smarter and more targeted, and are causing much greater damage. In this context, the Seqrite Quarterly Threat Report Q3 2018 serves to underline the sheer scale of risk that Indian organisations are exposed to, at present.”

“Mapping these trends has really helped us in gaining a better understanding of the tactics and modalities adopted by threat actors while targeting Indian businesses. Having successfully defended our clients against these threats, we are now utilizing the insights generated by our report to further strengthen our enterprise security offerings, and to better protect our clients from a fast-evolving threat landscape,” he added.

Seqrite detected over 24,000 cryptojacking hits on a daily basis during Q3 2018.