Last Updated on May 24, 2015
Update on 19/06/2013: I had to update the graph since, in compiling the first timeline of June, I discovered two attacks that apparently fell off my radar: the DDoS attacks to Moz and Plenty of Fish.
I found the time to aggregate the timelines of May (part I and part II) to derive some interesting stats. As a general rule, since many readers often pose the same questions, all the stats are derived from the Cyber Attacks Timelines I publish (almost) bi-weekly.
As I noticed previously in these pages, looks like attackers are just waiting for the Summer, since the number of events in May has experienced a sensible decreease.
The Daily Trend Of Attacks chart shows quite a linear trend with two small peaks around the 15 and 30 May. Overall the activity appears quite limited.
Cyber Crime rocks! This is the outcome of the Distribution of Attacks chart, showing a 67% of attacks carried on for criminal purposes. Particularly interesting is also the 11% of reported attacks related to Cyber Espionage.
And in (too) many cases the reason of the attacks is unknown. At least this is what the Distribution of Attack Techniques chart states. Other interesting findings include the rise of Account Hijackings and the noticeable 9% of Targeted Attack (an high incidence this month, undoubtedly related to the similar high incidence of Cyber Espionage).
And last but not least, the Distribution of Targets chart shows a predominance of attacks against Industry (41%), twice the occurrences related to Governmental targets (20%). Targets belonging to Educational institutions rank at number three with “only” the 9%.
Drilling down the Industrial targets provides further interesting findings. Cyber Crime rules and, maybe not a coincidence, targets related to E-Commerce rank at number one (after all this was the month of the Ebay breach) together with software industries (18.2% both). Entertainment rank at number three with 13.6% each.
As usual, please bear in mind that the sample must be taken very carefully since it refers only to discovered attacks included in my timelines. The sample does not pretend to be exhaustive but only aims to provide an high level overview of the “cyber landscape”, or at least of the ones that gained space in the media (yes, using an abused expression this is just the tip of the Iceberg).
Of course follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).
