Portugal – Cyber attacks on organisations rose 81% in 2021 – Check Point
Lisbon, Jan. 10, 2022 (Lusa) – The average weekly number of cyberattacks on Portuguese organisations increased last year by 81% year-on-year, with one organisation being attacked 881 times a week, with education and healthcare standing out, according to data from Check Point.
“In 2021, the peak was recorded in December, much due to the vulnerability in Log4J. In Portugal, an organisation was attacked on average 881 times a week, an increase of 81% compared to 2020,” Check Point Research (CPR), the ‘threat intelligence’ area of Check Point Software Technologies, a provider of cybersecurity solutions, indicated in a statement.
In this period, among the most targeted sectors, education, health and public administration/military sector stand out.
Globally, the number of cyber-attacks per week increased by 50 per cent last year, with the peak occurring in December “largely due to the Log4J vulnerability”.
The most affected sectors, worldwide, were education/research (with a 75% increase), followed by healthcare (71%).
According to the analysis released today, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America were the top targets for cyber-attacks against organisations.
However, Europe saw the highest percentage increase (68%) in cyberattacks.
“New techniques for penetrating systems and methods of evasion have made it much easier for hackers to carry out their malicious intentions,” said Omer Dembinsky, data research manager at Check Point Software, quoted in the same document, noting that some industries “central” to society are increasingly moving up the list of most attacked.
He also said that the numbers are expected to increase in 2022, “with hackers continuously innovating and seeking new methods to execute cyber-attacks, especially ransomware”.
Omer Dembinsky also recommended downloading ‘patches’, segmenting networks and making employees aware of these issues.
Data and statistics captured by Check Point’s threat prevention technologies were used to conduct this analysis.