A few days ago, we welcomed 2023 and Check Point took a look back at the past year in terms of cyberattacks. According to its report, the number of cyberattacks that occurred in 2022 was 38% higher than those observed in 2021.
The security firm claimed that this increase was largely due to the huge increase in attacks on healthcare organizations (74% year-on-year increase) and the activities of smaller, more agile hacking.
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In the fourth quarter of 2022, an average of 1168 weekly cyberattacks were recorded per organization. The average weekly figures for the year were highest for organizations in the education (2314), government agencies and military (1661), and healthcare organizations (1463).
According to Omer Dembinsky, director of Check Point's data group, hackers exploited security gaps created by the shift to remote work and education.
“Many educational institutions were ill-prepared for the unexpected shift to online learning, creating ample opportunities for hackers to infiltrate networks by any means necessary,” Dembinsky explained.
“Schools and universities also have the unique challenge of dealing with children or young adults, many of whom use their own devices or work from shared locations“.
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“The ransomware ecosystem continues to evolve and grow with smaller, more agile criminal groups forming to evade law enforcement,” he argued.
“Second, hackers are broadening their target to include business collaboration toolssuch as Slack, Teams, OneDrive and Google Drive with phishing exploits. These are a rich source of sensitive data, as most employees in organizations continue to work remotely.“.
Dembinsky also highlighted that AI tools like ChatGPT will likely lead to a dramatic increase in malicious activity in 2023, as they help hackers create malicious code and phishing emails.
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In 2022, cyberattacks against organizations in the US increased by 57% year-on-year and a sharp 77% increase was seen in UK businesses.
This data coincides with data from British ISP, Beaming, which found that 2022 was the busiest year in terms of cyberattacks.
There were 687,489 breach in the UK in 2022 (an attack every 46 seconds).
The period between October and December 2022 was the most “difficult” quarter. Beaming customers suffered thousands of cyberattacks during this period.
“Most cyberattacks use automated scripts that search the internet for the weakest links,” warned Beaming CEO Sonia Blizzard.
“Businesses that haven't improved their Internet in the last year or so are vulnerable to hackers“.
Cybersecurity is a major concern for all businesses and organizations , and it is important for business owners to take steps to protect their data from potential cyberattacks. Taking proactive measures, such as implementing appropriate security measures and educating employees on good cybersecurity practices, can help protect against data breaches. 2022 was a challenging year for cyberattacks, and 2023 is expected to see a similar number of breaches.
Source: www.infosecurity-magazine.com
