News & Analysis

Cyber Attacks at 2-Year High

Cyber crime has hit a high, breaching the record over the past two years, thanks to China’s espionage efforts via firmware installed in routers

The weekly average of cyberattacks across the world touched its highest in two years, in spite of the reduced impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the cyber security landscape. However, a new report points to increased cybercrime originating from Chinese espionage efforts that is being carried out via malicious firmware across internet routers and USB devices. 

A report by Check Point Research notes that besides the use of new evasive tactics, frequent hacktivism-based attacks, there was also a daily barrage of ransomware targeting enterprises across the world. In recent months, China’s APT has targeted government bodies through hidden malware that appeared to be legitimate apps. 

This new version of Chinese espionage was pushed through USB devices sa well as malicious firmware implants on internet routers, says the report, also noting that cybercriminals continued to leverage the latest AI revolution by stretching the borders of generatie AI chat platforms such as ChatGPT4. 

Cyberattacks grew 8% year on year

Overall cyberattacks peaked in the second quarter of 2023, reaching the highest levels in the past two years. There was an 8% spike in the global average in weekly attacks over the previous year with as many as 1,258 such instances recorded per week per organization. This, Check Point Research says, is the highest in two years. 

During the quarter, the education sector was the biggest target with 2,179 attacks per company per week, while the government and defense sector stood second with an average of 1,772 per week, which represented a 9% hike year-on-year. Healthcare sector followed a close third with 1,744 attacks and a significant 30% increase over a twelve-month period.

Among the continents, Africa saw the highest average weekly cyberattacks with 2,164 numbers while the APAC region saw a 22% spike with the numbers touching 2,046 per week. North America saw an 18% jump to 1,011 attacks while Europe had 1,013 such instances though it only represented a 5% increase in ransomware attacks.  

Ransomware attacks on defense, healthcare

Over the April-June period, one out of every 44 enterprises worldwide reported ransomware attacks representing a 9% growth year-on-year. Among these, both APAC and Europe saw the highest growth with 29% and 21% respectively. The whole of the America region saw attacks grow by 15% on an yearly basis. 

From an industry perspective, cybercriminals found the government and defense establishments easy prey with the highest number of ransomware attacks where one in 25 organizations were impacted. However, this actually represented a decrease of 4% compared to the previous year. 

The next in line was the healthcare sector where one out of 27 organizations reported such instances. This represented an 18% growth over 12 months and indicates that health records continue to have a premium, given the multiple use-cases that such data is being put to.  

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