Healthcare and Banking services were the most targeted verticals last year as cloud and phishing attacks continue to rise.

London, UK: Obrela Security Industries has announced the results of the ‘Security Attack Landscape’ report that analysed the digital threatscape of 2021 compared to 2020 across industry verticals and geolocations. The results show that email phishing attacks increased by 50% as banking and finance and healthcare sectors remain amongst the most frequently targeted institutions. This report comes from the analysis of more than 2,500 TBs of data, and more than 18 billion High Critical alerts.

The report also shows that Europe, Africa and North America are the most frequently targeted areas with the former receiving more than 40% of recorded cyberattacks. Further concerning trends show that cloud attacks on corporate and govern offices rose by 80% as political tensions rise. As the world continues to be torn between working remotely and returning to the office, malicious infection remains the most common attack vector (10.81%), while security group modification follows (9.16%) and suspicious VPN connection (7.71%) all pose key risks.

“Many businesses remain in a hybrid model with employees working from home, using various aspects of the cloud and storing critical data in a distributed manner. At the same time, employees are trusting applications on mobile devices or laptops or from home. Therefore, the attack vectors have significantly increased, and opportunistic cybercriminals are taking advantage of this.” Said Dr George Papamargaritis, MSS Operations Director, Obrela Security Industries. “As a result, this year has presented more advanced attacks, more advanced malware, unique cybercriminal to infiltrate various supply chains through a variety of vectors.” Continued Papamargaritis.