February 2017 Cyber Attacks Statistics

Last Updated on March 20, 2017

It’s time to publish and comment the cyber attacks statistics for February, derived from the corresponding cyber attacks timelines (Part I and Part II).

The level of activity has been stronger in the first half of the month, according to Daily Trend of Attacks chart, which shows two remarkable peaks during the second and third week.

As usual, Cyber Crime leads the Motivations chart, even if its percentage drops to 64.5% from 77.5% of February. Cyber Espionage surprisingly jumps at 22.4% (was 6.7), at the expenses of Hacktivism (7.9% vs 13.5%). Cyber Warfare also jumps to 5.3% from 2.2%.

Malware is still on top of the Attack Vectors chart with 23.7% (was 25.8% in January). Targeted attacks rank at number two among the known techniques with 18.4% (they ranked at place number three with 11.2% in January). Account Hijackings drop at 9.2% from 16.9%.

The Distribution of Targets Chart is led by Industries (28.9% vs 32.6% in January), ahead of Governments (25% vs 14.6%) and Single Individuals (7.9% vs 4.5%).

The Industry Drill Down chart (not particularly meaningful this month) is led by Retail with 18.2%.

The Organization Drill Down Chart is led by Politics.

As always, bear in mind that the sample refers exclusively to the 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, 2015 and 2016 (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, and feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).