Analysis of millions of cyberattacks from September 1st to December 31st, 2023, revealed a 19% increase in cyberattacks compared to the previous period, as the financial sector was the most targeted, accounting for over half of the attacks. 

The trend coincides with the significant increase in distinctive malware that attackers are using, pointing to a more sophisticated threat landscape, highlighting the evolving strategies of cybercriminals, and emphasizing the urgent need for effective cybersecurity measures across all industries. 

An analysis identified the financial sector as the most frequent target of cyberattacks, accounting for half of all incidents, while healthcare organizations follow closely at 20%, likely due to the valuable patient data they store. 

Government and public sector entities are also prime targets (18%), while critical infrastructure industries such as food and utilities see a smaller but significant attack share (4% each). These findings highlight the evolving threat landscape where cybercriminals target a variety of sectors for financial gain, sensitive data, or disruption of essential services. 

Financial institutions are prime targets for cyberattacks due to the abundance of valuable data and access to funds. It has been identified that over two million attacks have occurred in a recent period, with the majority being common malware variants. 

However, a concerning 21% employed unique malware, highlighting the evolving threats. Patching vulnerabilities is crucial for defense, but the finance sector’s lengthy approval processes create exploitable windows for attackers seeking financial gain or sensitive data. 

Healthcare emerged as the second-highest target for cyberattacks due to its critical role, making it more susceptible to ransomware payments after successful breaches. The industry’s reliance on digital storage of private patient data and its status as a critical service add to its attractiveness to attackers. 

The rise of MaaS and RaaS models has further fueled these attacks, leading to more intricate assaults that significantly endanger healthcare’s data security and overall operations.  

It indicates government and public entities are magnets for cyberattacks due to the treasure trove of sensitive data they possess and their critical role in infrastructure and security, which is the third most attacked industry segment, face a diverse attacker landscape with motivations spanning financial gain to geopolitical influence.  

The research by Blackberry also identified a concerning trend: over a third of attacks (36%) leveraged unique malware against this sector, highlighting the need for robust defences against constantly evolving threats. 

Cybercriminals target the food and utility sectors due to their growing dependence on digital infrastructure, which creates exploitable vulnerabilities and allows attackers to disrupt critical operations. They leverage this disruption, especially in ransomware attacks, to extort payments. 

The food supply chain’s fragility makes it particularly susceptible, as a single attack can have widespread consequences. Common attacks include ransomware, data breaches, and manipulation of industrial control systems, potentially causing outages or product contamination. 

Attackers create unique malware, also called novel malware, specifically to target high-value organizations that is designed to bypass traditional security measures that rely on identifying known malicious code (static signatures), and to achieve this, attackers may build the malware from scratch or modify existing strains. 

Alternatively, they can use automation scripts to generate numerous variations of the same malware by slightly modifying the source code during compilation, which results in unique code with the same malicious functionality, making it difficult for signature-based detection to identify.  

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