Unseen levels of cyberattacks: organizations targeted ten times an hour

The growing sophistication of cybercriminals and advanced technologies like AI and machine learning have pushed global cyberattack levels to unprecedented levels in the second quarter of 2024.

After a record-breaking first quarter, the number of cyberattacks rose by an additional 25% in the second quarter, according to the report by Check Point Research.

In the second quarter (Q2), on average, 1636 cyberattacks targeted every organization, analyzed by Check Point, weekly. That translates to ten cyberattacks each hour or one cyberattack every six minutes.

This level of cybercriminal activity is also 30% higher than during the same period last year and twice as high as in Q2 of 2021.

“The relentless onslaught of attacks underscores the growing sophistication and persistence of threat actors. Several cyber threat trends are all happening at once,” Check Point said.

Cybercriminals consistently target the education and research industry, hoping to extract sensitive information by exploiting often inadequate cybersecurity measures. This sector has a wide attack surface due to multiple groups of online users within and outside of the organizational networks.

Education and research organizations were targeted by an average of 3,341 cyber attacks per week, followed by government and military organizations (2,084 attacks per week) and healthcare (1,999 attacks per week).

“Hackers like to target hospitals because they perceive them as short on cybersecurity resources with smaller hospitals particularly vulnerable, as they are underfunded and understaffed to handle a sophisticated cyberattack,” the researchers said.

They also noted that fruitful cyberattacks against hospitals often result in hackers obtaining health insurance information, medical record numbers, and, sometimes, even Social Security numbers.

Geographically, Africa experiences the highest number of weekly attacks. The weekly number is approaching 3,000, marking a 37% increase compared to Q2 last year. Cyberattacks in Latin America skyrocketed by 53%, to an average of 2,667 attacks per week.

North America saw the lowest number of cyberattack attempts, 1188 per week, which is still 17% higher than last year. However, North America was the hardest hit by ransomware attacks, which are often the most costly and damaging.

One thousand two hundred ransomware attacks involving public extortion were reported in Q2, and 58% of them targeted organizations in North America.

“The dramatic rise in cyberattacks globally, particularly ransomware incidents, signals an urgent need for robust cybersecurity frameworks. Organizations must prioritize cybersecurity, adopting customized strategies to effectively combat the evolving threat landscape,” Check Point warns. “The time to act is now – before the next wave of attacks strikes.”