India Threat Landscape Report’s CISO Brief

Key Cybersecurity Insights for Security Leaders

• Dark Web Activity Is Driven by Data Circulation: Selling (48.60%) and sharing (43.85%) together account for over 90% of activity, showing a strong focus on distributing stolen data.
• Data Leaks Dominate the Threat Landscape: Data and database-related threats represent 81.00%, making compromised information the primary underground asset.
• Access Sales Enable Follow-On Attacks: 14.84% of activity involves access listings, often used for ransomware and further intrusion campaigns.
• Ransomware Activity Is Highly Fragmented: Qilin (8.9%), Sinobi (7.4%), and Akira (6.9%) lead, but 76.7% of attacks come from smaller, less predictable groups.
• Phishing Focuses on Credential Harvesting: Webmail login themes (14.17%) and urgency-based lures such as “Account Suspended” (7.79%) dominate campaigns.
• HTTPS Strengthens Phishing Effectiveness: 64.3% of phishing pages use HTTPS, increasing trust and making detection more difficult.

Why This Report Matters for CISOs

India’s threat landscape is shaped by large-scale data exposure and a decentralized attacker ecosystem. The widespread availability of stolen data and access lowers the barrier for attackers, enabling faster and more unpredictable campaigns. CISOs must prioritize visibility into dark web activity, strengthen identity and access controls, and enhance phishing detection to reduce the risk of compromise.

Security teams should focus on early detection of credential leaks, continuous monitoring of underground activity, and improving resilience against ransomware and social engineering attacks. By aligning defenses with real-time threat intelligence, organizations can better anticipate attacker behavior and protect critical assets in an increasingly data-driven threat environment.