India sees 18% surge in weekly cyberattacks in Jan-Mar 2023

During the first quarter of calendar year (CY) 2023, India saw an 18 per cent jump year-on-year in weekly cyberattacks, according to a report. The report also said it averaged 2,108 attacks per organisation during the period. During the first quarter of 2023, the global average weekly attacks rose by 7 per cent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022, with each organisation facing an average of 1,248 attacks per week, Check Point said in a statement. Globally, during the first quarter of 2023, the education or research sector was hit the hardest with the highest number of attacks, averaging 2,507 attacks per organisation per week, representing a 15 per cent surge from Q1 2022, according to the report which was released on Friday.
The government or military sector was the second most targeted with an average of 1,725 attacks per week, indicating a 3 per cent increase from the previous year. The healthcare sector experienced a significant rise in attacks with an average of 1,684 attacks per week, marking a substantial year-over-year increase of 22 per cent.
However, the most significant change came in the retail or wholesale sector which saw the highest year-over-year increase of 49 per cent with an average of 1,079 attacks per week.
According to the report, education or research continued to be the most heavily impacted sector, with many institutions still struggling to secure extended networks and access points during the shift to remote learning.
In the first quarter of 2023, the African region had the highest number of average weekly cyberattacks per organisation, with an average of 1,983 attacks, indicating a marginal decrease of 2 per cent compared to Q1 2022.
Conversely, the APAC region experienced the most significant year-over-year increase in average weekly attacks per organisation, with a surge of 16 per cent, reaching an average of 1,835 attacks per organisation, followed by the North American region, which saw a 9 per cent year-on-year increase coming to 950 average weekly attacks per organisation, the Check Point report said.
Check Point is an American-Israeli multinational provider of software and combined hardware and software products for IT security, including network security, endpoint security, cloud security, mobile security, data security and security management. As of 2021, the company has about 6,000 employees worldwide.