With the beginning of the new year, η Check Point Research (CPR) presents global statistics on the growth of cyber attacks as observed in 2021 per region, country and industry.
Last year, CPR saw a 50% increase in cyberattacks per weekteam on enterprise networks compared to 2020, peaking in December, mainly due to Log4J exploits. Hackers targeted Africa, Asia and Latin America the most, but Europe saw the biggest percentage increase in cyberattacks over the previous year.
The education / research sector was the one that ranked first as the most targeted industry in the world.
- Cyber-attacks in education / research increased by 75% last year
- Cyber-attacks on government sector increased by 47% last year
- Cyber-attacks in healthcare increased by 71% last year
Check Point Research (CPR), the research division of Check Point Software, reports that the trend of increasing cyberattacks reached an all-time high in late 2021 after revealing that vulnerabilitys Log4J, reaching 925 cyberattacks per week per organization, globally.
The most targeted areas by hackers in 2021 worldwide
- Education / Research (+ 75%)
- Government / Army (+ 47%)
- Communications (+ 51%)
- ISP / MSP (67%)
- Health (71%)
More targeted areas
- Africa (+ 13%)
- Asia-Pacific (+ 25%)
- Latin America (+ 38%)
- Europe (+ 68%)
- North America (+ 61%)
Comment by Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Software:
"Hackers continue to innovate. Last year, we saw an impressive 50% more cyber attacks per week on corporate networks compared to 2020, this is a significant increase. We have seen the number of cyberattacks peak towards the end of the year, mainly due to vulnerability exploitation efforts. log4J. New penetration techniques and avoidance methods have made it much easier for hackers to carry out malicious intent. The most worrying thing is that we see some key social sectors being launched into the list of most attacked. The education, government and healthcare sectors are on the list of the 5 most attacked industries in the world. I expect these numbers to increase in the run-up to 2022, as hackers continue to innovate and find new methods of carrying out cyber attacks, in particular ransomware. We are facing a cyber pandemic. I strongly urge the public, especially those working in the fields of education, government and healthcare, to learn the basics of how to protect themselves. "Simple measures such as repairing, segmenting networks and educating employees can go a long way in making the world safer."
Security tips
- Prevention, not detection
- Insure everything
- You repair often
- Fragment your networks
- Educate your employees
- Apply advanced security technologies
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*Statistics and data used in this report present data detected by Check Point's threat prevention technologies, stored and analyzed in ThreatCloud. ThreatCloud provides real-time threat intelligence from hundreds of millions of sensors worldwide, in networks, ultimately points and mobile phones. ThreatCloud is actually the driving force behind Check Point Software's threat prevention power, combining threat intelligence and big data with advanced AI technologies to deliver accurate prevention to all Check Point Software customers .