Cybersecurity Trends & Statistics; More Sophisticated And Persistent Threats So Far In 2023

The pace of technological innovation has led to a transformation in many areas of our lives. In 2023, although it is only Spring, the impact of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence/machine learning, 5G, IoT, and quantum are significantly impacting everything connected to the internet.

The introduction of these potentially disruptive technologies do have implications on cybersecurity and the challenges of keeping us safe. In particular, AI is the hot topic of focus as generative artificial intelligence can leverage ChatGPT-powered for code, and ai/machine learning to amplify social engineering capabilities and help identify target vulnerabilities for hackers. These evolving tech trends and statistics are already telling a story for 2023.

As data continues to be produced and stored in greater volumes, and as connectivity greatly expands globally on the internet, the attack surface has become more exploitable with gaps and vulnerabilities for criminal and nation state hackers. And they are taking advantage.

In fact, the global cyber-attacks Rose by 7% already in Q1 2023. Weekly cyber-attacks have increased worldwide by 7% in Q1 2023 compared to the same period last year, with each firm facing an average of 1248 attacks per week. The figures come from Check Points latest research report, which also suggests that the education and research sector experienced the highest number of attacks, rising to an average of 2507 per organization per week (a 15% increase compared to Q1 2022). The Check Point report also shows that 1 in 31 organizations worldwide experienced a ransomware attack weekly over the first quarter of 2023. Global Cyber Attacks Rise by 7% in Q1 2023 – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

In addition, key malware statistics for 2023 are adding to cybersecurity difficulties. It is estimated that 560,000 new pieces of malware are detected every day and that there are now more than 1 billion malware programs circulating. This translates to four companies falling victim to ransomware attacks every minute. A Not-So-Common Cold: Malware Statistics in 2023 (dataprot.net)

To top it off with more alarming statistics, so far almost 340 million people have been affected by publicly-reported data breaches or leaks in 2023 according to a public data breach tracker created by the U.K. news site The Independent. Cyber Security Today, April 28, 2023 Data on over 340 million people exposed so far this year | IT World Canada News

SECURING DATA AS VULNERABILITIES AND THE GLOBAL INTERNET ATTACK SURFACE GROWS

Last year, global 5G connections increased 76% in 2022 to 1.05B; 5G penetration hit 32% in North America. Global 5G connections are set to reach 1.9B in 2023. For cybersecurity that means less latency and faster attacks by threat actors. Global 5G Connections Set to Hit 1.9B in 2023 | TV Tech (tvtechnology.com)

Both cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities are expanding. A new report, State of Cyber Assets Report (SCAR) shows released by the cyber asset management company JupiterOne, analyzed over 291 million assets, findings, and policies to determine the current state of enterprise cloud assets. The report found that the number of assets organizations manage on average has increased by 133% year-over-year, from 165,000 in 2022 to 393,419 in 2023. The number of security vulnerabilities has grown disproportionately, jumping up 589%. According to the report, data is the most vulnerable type of asset, accounting for nearly 60% of all security findings.

The report also highlighted the challenges that security teams are facing, showing that, on average, a security team is responsible for 393,419 assets and attributes, 830,639 potential security risks, and 55,473 policies. This has led to security fatigue and staffing shortages in many organizations. Report: Cyber vulnerabilities skyrocket 589%, underscoring importance of cybersecurity | WRAL TechWire

While many industry sectors have been the target of cyber-attacks, including financial, education, and retail, the healthcare industry still is in the cross hairs of criminal hackers. This makes sense as many health institutions still lack the proper investment and expertise in cybersecurity because their funding goes to medical equipment and operations. Criminal hackers tend to go for the low hanging fruit. In the case of healthcare, the liability risks make ransomware a logical means of extortion.

HEALTHCARE STILL HINDERED BY CYBER ATTACKS

According to the IBM 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report, the healthcare industry is still the costliest industry for a breach at $10.1 million on average for the twelfth year in a row. Fortified Health found that 78% of data breaches in 2022 were from hacking and IT incidents, an increase from 45% in 2018. Unauthorized access the second leading cause accounted for 38% of incidents in 2018 and now is only responsible for 16%. Other causes noted were theft, loss and improper data disposal.

Attackers often set their sights on healthcare organizations because breaches and incidents have a high impact. Because healthcare is an essential service, organizations are more likely to pay ransoms to provide continuous care when business disruptions can have devastating consequences. Additionally, healthcare organizations possess high-value data, such as personal and financial information. Attackers can often resell records for high prices on the dark web. Hacking Caused 80% of Healthcare Data Breaches in 2022 (securityintelligence.com)

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