Specops Software has released a new report that reveals that the United States is the most frequent victim of major cyberattacks. The country has experienced 156 significant cybersecurity incidents since May of 2006, a volume that is more than three times greater that the 47 incidents that the UK has faced in the same period. The UK was the second most common target of serious cyberattacks.
The report itself is based on the latest data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and looks at cyberattacks between May 2006 and June 2020. Specops tallied the total number of significant events in each country, defining a significant cyberattack as one that targets government agencies or a country’s top defense and technology companies, or as an economic crime that leads to losses greater than $1 million.
Nearly 20 percent of those American incidents occurred in 2018 alone. That remains the worst year for any country on record, with the 30 incidents that the U.S. faced in 2018 exceeding the 14-year total for every country other than Great Britain.
India and Germany were the only other countries with more than 20 cyberattacks, with 23 and 21, respectively. South Korea rounded out the top five with a final tally of 18.
The most common types of attacks were Denial of Service attacks, phishing attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and SQL injections. The latter three are different ways of gaining access to passwords, credentials, and other sensitive information.
According to Specops, cyberattacks will cost the global economy $6 trillion annually as of 2021. The United States will likely be responsible for much of that total, with ForgeRock previously reporting that U.S. organizations lost $1.2 trillion in 2019 due to data breaches. LexisNexis Risk Solutions has noted that cybercrime is an increasingly international operation, and that a growing proportion of cybercriminals are now targeting mobile channels.
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