May 2021 Cyber Attacks Statistics

Shortly after the Cyber Attacks Timelines of May (part I and part II), it’s time to publish the corresponding statistics. In May, I have collected 177 significant events, a consistent drop compared to the 240 of April; of course, as I have already pointed out, the numbers don’t tell all the story and despite the numbers continue to decrease, the impact remains high.

Unsurprisingly, cyber crime leads the Motivations chart with 88.7% (a value very close to 88.3% of April.) Similarly, malware continues to lead the Attack Techniques chart and, for the second month in a row, accounts for nearly 50% of attacks (48.6% vs 48.3% in April). I won’t stress enough the concept that the real value could be even higher since some malware-based attacks are filed as “Unknown” as the victims do not disclose enough information.) Attacks carried out via the exploitation of vulnerabilities still play an important role, ranking at number three among the known techniques, with a value similar to April (10.2% vs. 10.8%.)

And finally multiple industries retain the leadership of the Target Distribution chart with 15.8% (it was 18.8% in April), ahead of public administrations that have taken over individuals at number two.

The statistics are also available as an infographic.