Cyberattacks are more common than ever - and these are the fields being hit the most

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Cyberattacks are significantly up year-on-year, experts claim

Cyber attack
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While cyberattacks are significantly rising all over the world, some industries are hit harder than others, a new Check Point Report (CPR) has claimed.

Based on its data for Q2 2024, CPR says cyberattacks increased by almost a third (30%) year-on-year, reaching 1,636 attacks per organization - per week globally - a rise of 25% compared to Q1 2024.

This “relentless onslaught of attacks,” as CPR describes it, is fueled mostly by the growing sophistication and persistence of threat actors, since Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) gave even low-level threat actors the tools usually reserved only for the biggest and most dangerous of groups.

Education and Research

But not all organizations are being hit at the same level, as the report notes those in the Education and Research industry are bearing the brunt of this onslaught, contending with 3,341 attacks per organization, per week. 

These firms, CPR further explains, are the hackers’ most popular target since they hold a wealth of sensitive information, and are often inadequately protected. Furthermore, in these firms, there are many employees within and outside the network, thus expanding the attack vector surface - and as a result, organizations in this industry have seen a 53% increase in attacks year-on-year.

Education and Research is followed by Government and Military (2,084 attacks per organization per week), and Healthcare (1,999 attacks).

While perhaps not the most attacked vertical, the Manufacturing industry was most affected, taking up almost a third (29%) of all publicly extorted ransomware attacks’ victims, globally (up 56% year-on-year). 

Analyzing the threats on a geographical level, CPR concluded that the biggest growth in cyberattacks happened in Latin America (more than 53% year-on-year), followed by Africa (37%), and Europe (35%). Africa experienced the highest volume of attacks with 2,960 weekly attacks per organization, followed by Latin America with 2,667. 

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.