And finally I have aggregated all the data collected in 2021 from the cyber attacks timelines. In the past year I have collected 2539 events, meaning nearly a 9% increase compared with the 2332 events collected over the course of 2020. Interestingly this increase occurred mainly between January and May (maybe an effect of the pandemic), after this interval, the trend is essentially in line with the values of 2020.
Cyber crime continues to lead the Motivations chart with 84.1%, a value in line with 86% of 2020. Even the percentage of Cyber Espionage is in line with the previous year (10.4% vs 10%). The difference is probably in the number of events where the motivation was not clear: during 2021 many vulnerabilities were generically “exploited in the wild” without specifying if the exploitation was carried out by cyber criminals or sate-sponsored actors.
Malware continues to lead the Attack Techniques chart with 39.4% very close to 39.9% recorded over the course of 2020. What is interesting to notice, is the jump of the impact of vulnerabilities from 5% to 10.7% during 2020.
Finally, multiple industries lead the Target Distribution chart with 20.7%, even in this case a value that is substantially in line with 2020 when it was 19.6%. Despite the pandemic, the ransomware gangs focused their unwelcome attentions on the healthcare target, and this probably explain the jump of this sector at rank number two with 11.9%.
The statistics are also available as an infographic.
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.
Original data available at this link
Support my work! Make a donation!
Q1 2021 Cyber Attack Statistics
I have aggregated the statistics created from the cyber attacks timelines published so far in 2021. Cyber crime leads the Motivations chart with…
Q3 2021 Cyber Attacks Statistics
Similarly to the previous quarters, I have aggregated the statistics created from the cyber attacks timelines…
Q4 2021 Cyber Attacks Statistics
I have aggregated the statistics created from the cyber attacks timelines published in Q4 2021, derived from…
October 2026 Cyber Attacks TimelineA live view of the month's vetted cyber incidents, updated as new events are confirmed. Explore the timeline, filter by attack type, and see motivations, techniques, initial access methods, targeted sectors and target countries on an interactive map.
Q3 2026 Cyber Attacks StatisticsIn the third quarter of 2026, I recorded 588 cyber incidents. Cyber Crime accounted for 77.1% of motivations, Malware was the most common attack technique at 31.9%, and Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) led initial access at 30.4%. Information and Communication was the hardest-hit sector.
Q3 2026 Cyber Attacks Statistics InfographicNinety-two days, 588 incidents, one attack roughly every four hours. This infographic distils the Q3 2026 cyber attacks statistics into the numbers that matter: motivations, top techniques, initial access, targeted sectors and geography.
Mega Breaches in 2026Here’s a collection of the main mega breaches (that is data breaches with more than one million records compromised and possibly leaked) during 2026. The information is derived from the cyber attacks timelines that I published, normally, on a bi-weekly basis.
September 2026 Cyber Attacks StatisticsSeptember 2026 recorded 182 cyber incidents, and Cyber Crime drove roughly three in four of them (73.9%). Malware was the top attack vector at 27.8%, exploitation of public-facing applications led initial access at 28.9%, and Information & Communication was the most targeted sector. Explore the ...
why can’t I see any statistics？Could you please send me the 2021 Cyber Attacks Statistics by email? (include the excel and pictures) thank you!
It is working now. The table was too long and screwed up the rendering of the page. Now I have just inserted the link to the Google Sheet
Hi, the page is blank. Where can I find the 2021 statistics? Thanks