Last Updated on September 24, 2020
It’s time to publish the statistics derived from the cyber attacks timeline of July (part I and part II). As previously mentioned this month has been characterized by ransomware (throughout the entire period, but we are used to it), and mega breaches, a trend that emerged in the second part of the month. Easily predictable the two characterize the statistics of the month.
The Daily Trend chart is characterized by three peaks on the 15th, the 23rd and the 30th. In particular, the peak of the 23rd is the consequence of the ransomware attack to a service provider, serving educational institutions. Despite apparently thwarted, the attackers manged to steal the data of multiple educational institututions in the US, UK, and Canada. Instead, around the 30th, we have a cluster of mega breaches, carried out by ShinyHunters, and targeting primarily startups.
Pushed by ransomware and mega breaches, cyber crime is always on top of the Motivations Behind Attacks chart with 87%, back to the value of May, after 85.6% of June. Cyber Espionage slides to 8.7% from 10.7% of June, while cyber espionage and hacktivism account for 2.2% (from respectively 1.1% and 2.1% in June).
The Attack Techniques chart is very specular to June. Malware is on top with 36.4%, exactly the same value of the previous month. Account hijackings are again at number two among the known attack techniques with 14.7% (it was 16% in June). Finally, similarly to June, targeted attacks rank at number three with 8.2, down from 9.1% of June.
Once again, attacks against multiple targets lead the Distribution of Targets chart with 21.2% (from 19.3% of June. Educational targets rank at number two with 9.8%, ahead of individuals, still at number three with 9.2% (from 12.8%).
That’s all folks! At least for this month. As always bear in mind that the sample refers exclusively to the attacks included in my timelines, available from public sources such as blogs and news sites. Obviously the sample cannot be complete, but only aims to provide an high level overview of the threat landscape.
Finally, please support my work, sharing the content, and 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).
