2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Sector Comparison The graph below demonstrates the trendline of each sector per year. The exposure of all the sectors grew over the years and is now in its peak. It seems that over the years, the order has not changed. Telecom sector demonstrated higher numbers of offers compared to the other sectors in all researched years. The government sector demonstrated relatively similar numbers to the telecom sector. The banking and energy sectors demonstrated similar numbers that increased in almost the same rate over the years. It is worth mentioning in this context that Cognyte detected an overall increase in cybercrime and nation-state activities against the telecommunications sector 11 . During 2021, databases of multiple telecommunications companies were traded or offered for free on Dark Web hacking forums, while nation-state groups continued to target telecommunications companies worldwide. The group that was behind the publication of a major breach in 2021 was also responsible for at least 12 more breaches on telecommunication companies across the world since 2019. VoIP companies were also targeted during 2021 by a series of DDoS attacks that disrupted their services. APT Groups targeting sectors is not a new trend. These APT groups are usually state-sponsored, and their motivation is typically political or economic. For example, a group dubbed APT38, or ‘Lazarus Group’ has targeted mainly the banking and financial institution sector, in 2017 the group was linked to multiple attacks on Cryptocurrency coins such as Monero and Bitcoin. A relatively new group named ChamelGang has been focusing on fuel and energy organizations as they attacked the Russian energy organization, the origin of the group is still unknown. Growth of login credentials offered for sale, divided by selected sector, 2019-2021 1 2 Bot Market Research https://www.cognyte.com/blog/telecom-cyber-attack 11. Telecom Energy Banks Government 2019 2020 2021 180,000 160,000 140,000 120,000 110,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 15 The Rise of Dark Web Botnet Marketplaces