Cyber attack frequency considerably higher than last year

In terms of industries being targeted, the education sector came out on top with an average of 4,848 weekly attacks per company, with government following at 3,044 and telecommunications at 2,927.

Threat actors are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure provides, with the Energy and Utilities sector seeing 20 per cent more cyber attacks at 2,759 a week. Hospitality, travel and recreation also creeped into the top 5 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 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 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 1 in 4 (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.