How often do cyberattacks happen? How frequently do threat actors target businesses and governments around the world? The BlackBerry® Threat Research and Intelligence Team recently analyzed 90 days of real-world data to answer these questions. Full results are in the latest BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report, but read on for a teaser of several interesting cyber attack statistics.
Analyzing Real-World Cyberattacks
In their most recent quarterly report, BlackBerry threat researchers analyzed the onslaught of malware-based attacks from December 2022 to February 2023. During that time, BlackBerry's AI-powered endpoint protection solution, detected and blocked a total of 1,578,733 malware-based cyberattacks targeting customers.
90 Days of Cyberattacks
Based on analysis of cyberattacks detected and blocked during the 90-day window, the BlackBerry Threat Research and Intelligence Team recorded the following statistics:
Total number of malware-based attacks: 1,578,733
Number of unique attacks (using previously undetected malware): 200,454
Average number of cyberattacks per day: 17,280
Average number of cyberattacks per hour: 720
Average number of attacks per minute: 12
Average number of new malware variants per minute: 1.5
The latest report also analyzes changes in the velocity of cyberattacks detected during this period. The graph below shows a significant peak occurred in early December 2022, followed by a noticeable drop in the last week of the year, as many threat actors and their targets appeared to take a holiday break. Attacks ramped up again as cybercriminals got back to work in the new year.
The number of new malware variants detected was fairly consistent during the study period. Legacy signature-based antivirus products offer limited value against this steady onslaught of previously unseen attacks, leading many organizations to switch over to AI-based EPP (endpoint protection platform) solutions that have proven to be significantly more effective when evaluated by independent testing.
Most-Targeted Industries
The BlackBerry Threat Research and Intelligence Team also identified the most-attacked industries among those customers protected by BlackBerry products. The following data is based on the number of times BlackBerry's zero trust access solution, CylanceEDGE™, stopped cyberattacks targeting organizations in various sectors.
The most-targeted industries during the study period included:
Financial institutions
Healthcare services and equipment, including hospitals, clinics, and medical devices
Food and staples retailers, including supermarkets, drugstores, and companies that sell food products to other businesses
The report found these vertical industries accounted for 60% of the overall number of attacks. BlackBerry threat researchers also analyzed the types of malware deployed against these verticals.
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