Last Updated on October 13, 2015
It’s time to publish the statistics derived from the August 2015 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part I and Part II).
As usual, let’s start from the Country Distribution Chart that, surprisingly, confirms the United States on top of all the categories. Analyzing the chart in detail, Cyber Crime is maybe the more interesting, Obviously it is always dominated by the United States, however, the United Kingdom and Canada, which complete the podium ranking respectively at the second and third place, emerge over the other countries (even if the number of events is considerably lower than the one reported for the US, that is really unreachable (at least for the moment).
The analysis of the Daily Trend Chart reveals quite a heterogeneous structure, showing a higher level of activity during the first half of the month. After that, the number of daily attacks goes progressively diminishing, except for one isolated peak around August 27.
Surprisingly, Cyber Crime (once again) ranks on top of the Motivations Behind Attacks chart, with a percentage of 69.6% (a >10% growth in comparison with July). Hacktivism drops to 16.5% (was 31.1% in July), whereas Cyber Espionage soars to a remarkable 13.9% (was 6.8% in July).
25.3% of the Attack Techniques is unknown but, behind this category, SQL Injection confirms its “momentum” jumping to a noticeable 19% (was 14.9% in July), once again ahead of defacements, which register a small increase (15.2% vs. 13.5% in July). The podium is completed by the Targeted Attacks (12.7% vs 9.5% in July) whose level remains consistent. DDoS is substantially in line with July (10.1% vs 10.8%), whereas Account Hijackings jump to 8.9% (vs 2.7% in June).
The Distribution of Targets chart confirms the industrial sector on top with a value that, although slightly decreasing, is similar to July (29.1% vs 32.4%). Governments rank at number two with 15.2% (in June was 18.9%), whereas organizations complete the podium (13.9% vs 8.1% reported in July).
Internet Services rank on top of the August Industry Drill Down chart (21.7%), ahead of E-Commerce (17.4%) and Retail (13%). On the other hand, non-profits organizations lead the Organization Drill Down chart with 44%.
As usual, the sample must be taken very carefully since it refers only to discovered attacks included in my timelines, aiming to provide an high level overview of the “cyber landscape”.
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and now 2015 (regularly updated). You may also want to have a look at the Cyber Attack Statistics.
Of course follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates, andfeel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).