December 2020 Cyber Attacks Statistics

Last Updated on January 27, 2021

And finally the last blog for the 2020 monthly statistics series is here! For sure you know that the statistics are derived from the corresponding timelines (part I and part II) and maybe you also know that in the next few days I will publish the aggregated data for 2020. Definitely a year to forget from many points of views (but I have the feeling that it will be remembered for a very long time…

As usual let’s start with the Daily Trend of Attacks chart that shows a peak in the second week of the month, while the apparent break of the weekend is visible. Do not forget that this is probably an artifact due to the fact that the timelines show the date when the event was reported and not when it effectively occurred.

And unsurprisingly cyber crime dominates The Daily Breakdown chart:

The Motivations Behind Attacks chart shows Cyber Crime on top with 83.7%, down from 86.7% of November. Cyber Espionage jumps to 10.6% from 8.2%. The actions of the Pay2Key ransomware group against Israel push Cyber Warfare to 4.8% from 1%, while Hacktivism closes the chart with 0.4% (from 1% as well).

Malware is still on top of the Attack Techniques, with 42.7%, in practice the same value of November when it was 42.9%. Account hijackings are stable at number two among the known attack techniques with 11.7% very close to the 12.1% of the previous month. Targeted attacks jump at number three with 9.7%.

Similarly to November, October and September, attacks against multiple targets lead the Distribution of Targets chart with 14.5%, down from 21.9% of November, the same value of governments, and ahead of healthcare orgs with 11%, a value similar to November, when it was 11.2%.

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, including the yearly aggregated statistics that I will make available in the next couple of days. Also feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).