Check Point Research (CPR) has released new data on 2022 cyber attack trends. The data is segmented by global volume, industry, and geography. Global cyber attacks increased by 38 percent in 2022, compared to 2021. These cyber attack numbers were driven by smaller, more agile hacker and ransomware gangs, who focused on exploiting collaboration tools used in work-from-home environments, and targeting of education institutions that shifted to e-learning post COVID-19. This increase in global cyber attacks also stems from hacker interest in healthcare organizations, which saw the largest increase in cyber attacks in 2022, when compared to all other industries. CPR warns that the maturity of AI technology could accelerate the number of cyber attacks in 2023.
Key statistics from CPR include:
- Global volume of cyber attacks reached an all-time high in Q4 with an average of 1168 weekly attacks per organization.
- The top three most attacked industries in 2022 were education/research, government, and healthcare.
- Africa experienced the highest volume of attacks with 1875 weekly attacks per organization, followed by APAC with 1691 weekly attacks per organization.
- North America (+52 percent), Latin America (+29 percent) and Europe (+26 percent) showed the largest increases in cyber attacks in 2022.
- The US saw a 57 percent increase in overall cyber attacks in 2022, the UK saw a 77 percent increase and Singapore saw a 26 percent increase.
