The technology giant’s annual Microsoft Digital Defence report said it had seen the number of ransomware attacks more than double over the last 12 months. In particular, Microsoft said it was seeing operations linked to China favouring AI-generated imagery, while Russia-linked operations preferred audio-based content. Elsewhere in the report, Microsoft said it was increasingly seeing nation states turning to cybercriminals and the tools they use in order to gather intelligence as well as to make financial gain. “Aside from the United States and the United Kingdom, most of the nation-state affiliated cyber threat activity we observed was concentrated around Israel, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan,” Mr Burt said. “Microsoft customers face more than 600 million cybercriminal and nation-state attacks every day, ranging from ransomware to phishing to identity attacks,” Mr Burt said.

Source: Daily Nation October 15, 2024 13:19 UTC