In 2023, NÚKIB also
recorded several
DDoS attacks in
which the attacker
could not be
identified.
Number of declared DDoS attacks on
European countries by NoName057(16) in
2023
PL
118
UA
99
LT
99
CZ
55
LV
55
IT
42
DE
41
EST
One such example was the DNS NXDOMAIN campaign, its name based on the
flooding attack technique it used. This
campaign was notable for its lack of correlation with geopolitical events or the
activities of the targeted organisations,
leaving the motives behind the attacks
unclear. Alongside the techniques and
infrastructure used in this campaign,
the only clues were the specific victim
profile, as these attacks exclusively targeted Czech state institutions.
39
UK
36
SE
36
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
Figure 3
Ransomware attacks have been consistently recorded by NÚKIB since 2018.
In June 2023 however, NÚKIB observed
a noticeable increase in ransomware
activities targeting strategically important Czech entities, prompting NÚKIB to
issue an alert about the heightened risk.
The most prominent actors in the statistics were the PLAY and LockBit gangs,
mirroring global trends. Apart from
those, NÚKIB registered numerous
phishing campaigns carried out by both
state-sponsored actors and cyber-criminal groups.
While less important incidents more than
tripled, important incidents decreased
by a third.
2022
69
Less Important
Cyber Incidents
217
74
Important
Cyber Incident
43
Very Important
Cyber Incidents
3
2
0
In June 2023 NÚKIB
observed a noticeable
increase in ransomware activities
targeting strategically important
Czech entities
12
2023
50
100
150
200
250
Figure 4: Evolution of the number of incidents registered by NÚKIB in 2022–2023
In terms of the severity of the incidents registered, positive developments were
observed, with a year-on-year decrease in the number of important and very important
cyber incidents despite a significant increase in the overall number of incidents (Fig. 4).
The increase in the number and reduction of severity of registered incidents can be
attributed to the repeated DDoS attacks against Czech targets, which are prominent in
NÚKIB’s statistics but generally had no significant or long-term impacts.