Cyber attack frequency considerably higher than last year

In terms of targeted industries, the education sector came out on top, averaging 4,848 weekly attacks per company, followed by government at 3,044 and telecommunications at 2,927.

Threat actors are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure providers, with the energy and utilities sector seeing 20 per cent more cyber attacks, at 2,759 a week. Hospitality, travel, and recreation also crept into the top five sectors, with a 28 per cent increase and 2,614 attacks a week on average.

Still, business services is still topping the most targeted by ransomware, making up almost a third of all ransomware attacks at 32.5 per cent, with industrial manufacturing following at 14.4 per cent.

Geographically, Latin America remains the most targeted region with 3,561 weekly attacks per organisation, closely followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 3,316 and Africa with 3,327. That being said, Africa’s numbers are down 5 per cent year on year.

For ransomware, North America remains the biggest target with 45 per cent of all reported cyber incidents hitting the continent. Europe follows with 28 per cent, and the Asia-Pacific region with 17 per cent.

That North American statistic is largely represented by the US, with 39.4 per cent of reported ransomware attacks.

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The AI effect

The use of generative AI is marking major changes in risk, with one in every 36 enterprise prompts carrying a high risk of leaking sensitive data, while 88 per cent of companies using generative AI regularly were impacted by high-risk prompt activity.

Almost one in four (22 per cent) of prompts had potentially sensitive data in them, with personal data being the most common, with it present in 70 per cent of organisations featured in the report. This was closely followed by financial data and network and IT infrastructure, all of which were at 68 per cent.