Rise in spyware attacks poses growing risk to businesses: Kaspersky

Mumbai: A sharp rise in spyware attacks is exposing businesses in India to increasing cyber risks, according to global cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky.

In 2025, Kaspersky’s business solutions detected 369,445 spyware attacks targeting organisations in India — a steep 72 per cent increase from the 214,407 detections recorded in 2024, the company said in a statement.

Spyware is malicious software that is secretly installed on a user’s computer or device to gather sensitive information. Such software can enable cybercriminals to steal confidential data, monitor communications, and compromise corporate systems without users being aware. Besides data theft and privacy breaches, spyware can also degrade device and network performance, slowing down routine operations.

Kaspersky said spyware has emerged as one of the fastest-growing B2B cyber threats in India, with the surge in detections underscoring the urgent need for organisations to strengthen their cyber defences against increasingly sophisticated and stealth-based malware attacks.

The threat comes amid India’s rapid digital expansion. By 2025, internet connections in the country crossed the 100-crore mark, while UPI processed more than 21 billion transactions worth Rs 27 lakh crore in December 2025 alone, creating a vast and lucrative attack surface for cybercriminals. The Union Budget 2025-26 allocated Rs 782 crore towards cybersecurity, reflecting the government’s growing focus on protecting India’s digital infrastructure.

The company also pointed to the increasing regulatory burden under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, and the DPDP Rules, 2025, which make spyware-related breaches a direct compliance and legal risk. The regulations mandate explicit user consent, timely breach reporting, encryption safeguards, and periodic security audits. However, Kaspersky claimed that over 83 per cent of Indian organisations are yet to begin comprehensive DPDP implementation, leaving significant vulnerabilities that threat actors could exploit.

“Spyware is one of the most dangerous threats against Indian businesses today because it operates silently. By the time an organisation realises it has been compromised, sensitive data and corporate intelligence may already be in the hands of adversaries,” said Jaydeep Singh.

He added that India’s fast-paced digital transformation, expanding IT and start-up ecosystem, and digitisation of sectors such as BFSI, manufacturing, and government services have made the country an attractive target for cybercriminals.

“A spyware incident today is not merely a security failure but also a regulatory and reputational crisis with long-term implications for business continuity and stakeholder trust. Organisations must move beyond reactive security measures and adopt intelligence-led, AI-powered solutions capable of detecting and neutralising threats before data is compromised,” Singh said.

Kaspersky noted that spyware increasingly underpins modern cyberespionage campaigns by enabling attackers to covertly monitor systems, capture sensitive information, and track internal communications over extended periods. Designed for stealth and persistence, these tools allow threat actors to build detailed profiles of organisational activity and extract high-value intelligence, highlighting the growing role of advanced spyware in long-term targeted cyber operations.