Hackers attacked businesses 22 million times in the last one week alone. This is according to data that was analyzed and compiled by Atlas VPN. Malware attacks comprised over 63 percent of the hacking attempts. Other attacks that were monitored include Command & Control (C&C) and phishing attacks
A command & Control attack happens when hackers try to take control of a system in order to steal or delete data. C&C attacks also happen as part of a phishing scam and can also be used to infect the system with malware.
Atlas VPN extracted and organised the data from cybersecurity giant, Akamai which is known to provide real time data on any cyber threats their corporate clients are undergoing. The company is one of the largest distributed computing platform in the world and often catch or avert a significant amount of threats. They serve between 15-30 percent web traffic worldwide.
Read: At Least 37 Million Cyber Threats Detected In Kenya In The Last Quarter Of 2019
Throughout last week alone, there was an average of about 3.26 million attacks experienced daily. According to the chart, most of the attacks were carried out on April 15 with a total of about 3.6 million attempts, mostly, malware attacks.
Malware attacks make it easy for hackers to infiltrate corporate systems and to steal or freeze information after which they can ask for a ransom. Last week, there was an average of 2,070, 279 malware attacks per day. This made up 63 percent of the total attacks. C&C and phishing attacks comprised 26 percent and 11 percent respectively. The hackers seem to have taken Saturday (April 18) off as there were 12 percent less attacks on that day compared to the rest.
On a broader perspective, in the last 30 days, hackers have tried to infiltrate corporate systems at least 100 million times. They attacked business networks with malware at least 57 million times. This makes up about 58 percent of the total cyber-attacks. C&C attacks were the next commonly used method with about 27 million attempts making up 27 percent of the total attacks. Phishing scams came last with at least 15 million attempts with the 30-day period, making up 15 percent of the total attacks.
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The hackers do not seem to have any preference for specific days. 23rd March (Monday) and 18th April (Saturday) had the smallest number of attacks while 5th April (Sunday) and 6th April (Monday) had the highest number with cyber criminals attempting to infiltrate networks 8,821,850 times in these two days alone.
Cyber-attacks cause disruption of service and presents other equally costly ramifications. This include theft, damage or destruction of data, money being stolen, lost productivity and the cost of recovering from the attacks as well as the intangible cost that is a damaged reputation and the breach it presents.
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