Cyber attacks average more than two thousand four hundred per week worldwide. Phishing accounts for over a third of breaches while stolen credentials drive nearly half of web application incidents. The sections below examine vectors, costs, and differences by industry and region.
Key Takeaways
- Phishing remains the most common attack vector at 36% of breaches in 2023 per Verizon DBIR.
- The average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million globally.
- In 2023, the average number of weekly cyber attacks worldwide reached 2,465, marking a 10% increase from 2022.
- Healthcare was the most attacked industry with 19% of attacks in 2023.
- US was site of 46% of global breaches in 2023.
Cyberattacks hit organizations worldwide, causing major financial losses and disruption year after year.
Related reading
01 · Category
Common Attack Vectors26 stats
01
Phishing remains the most common attack vector at 36% of breaches in 2023 per Verizon DBIR.
02
Ransomware was involved in 24% of breaches analyzed in 2023.
03
Use of stolen credentials caused 49% of web app breaches in 2023.
04
DDoS attacks made up 15% of all incidents reported in 2023.
05
Malware was a factor in 16% of security incidents in 2023 DBIR.
06
Vulnerability exploitation accounted for 29% of breaches in 2023.
07
Social engineering tactics used in 22% of initial access vectors.
08
SQL injection responsible for 23% of web hacks in 2023.
09
Business email compromise (BEC) scams led to $2.9 billion losses via 21,000 incidents.
10
Cross-site scripting (XSS) in 7% of application attacks in 2023.
11
Remote services like VPNs exploited in 63% of intrusions post-COVID.
12
Cloud misconfigurations caused 19% of breaches in 2023.
13
Man-in-the-middle attacks rose 26% targeting mobile users.
14
Zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in 56% of attacks by advanced groups.
15
Account takeover via credential stuffing in 80% of identity attacks.
16
Supply chain compromises affected 25% of large breaches.
17
IoT botnets like Mirai variants in 40% of DDoS attacks.
18
Cryptojacking scripts hidden in 99% of legitimate sites scanned.
19
Deepfake phishing increased 3x in executive targeting.
20
Fileless malware evaded detection in 77% of memory attacks.
21
Lateral movement via SMB exploits in 34% of network breaches.
22
Vishing (voice phishing) up 329% in 2023 incidents.
23
DNS tunneling used in 15% of data exfiltration attempts.
24
Insider threats via privilege abuse in 20% of incidents.
25
Watering hole attacks on industry sites up 50%.
26
Evil twin Wi-Fi hotspots in 28% of public network attacks.
Interpretation
Common Attack Vectors Interpretation
Within the Common Attack Vectors category, phishing stands out as the leading cause at 36% of 2023 breaches, while other major contributors like vulnerability exploitation at 29% and stolen credentials driving 49% of web app breaches show that initial access is often enabled by both social engineering and direct compromise.
02 · Category
Financial Losses30 stats
01
The average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million globally.
02
Ransomware payments averaged $1.54 million per incident in 2023.
03
Global cybercrime costs expected to hit $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
04
BEC scams caused $2.9 billion in losses from 21,000 complaints in 2023.
05
Healthcare data breaches cost $10.93 million on average in 2023.
06
Financial services faced $5.9 million average breach cost in 2023.
07
Lost business amounted to 36% of total breach costs at $1.6 million avg.
08
Detection and escalation costs averaged $1.58 million per breach.
09
Post-breach response costs hit $1.24 million on average.
10
Notification costs per breach averaged $0.31 million in 2023.
11
DDoS attacks cost businesses $52,000per hour of downtime in 2023.
12
Global ransomware demanded $1 billion in payments in first half 2023.
13
Cyber insurance claims rose 50% costing $7 billion in 2023.
14
IP theft losses estimated at $600 billion annually worldwide.
15
Phishing attacks led to $52 million average organizational loss.
16
Supply chain attack costs averaged $4.9 million per incident.
17
Cloud breach costs $4.75 million vs. $4.35 million on-premise.
18
Mega breaches (50M+ records) cost $101 million on average.
19
Average downtime from ransomware was 24 days costing $1.85M.
20
Customer PII exposure costs added $0.39 million per breach.
21
60% of SMEs fail within 6 months of cyber attack, costing billions.
22
Dark web data sales from breaches generated $1.5 billion revenue.
23
Fines and penalties averaged $4.95 million for non-compliant breaches.
24
Reputation damage from breaches cost $1.5 million avg. in lost biz.
25
Total global cybercrime damage $8 trillion in 2023.
26
Healthcare industry saw $10.1 million avg. breach cost increase 53%.
27
Energy sector breaches cost $4.84 million on average.
28
Retail breach costs averaged $3.29 million in 2023.
29
Public sector faced $2.67 million avg. per data breach.
30
Manufacturing breaches cost $4.82 million average.
Interpretation
Financial Losses Interpretation
For the Financial Losses category, 2023 data shows breaches are costing millions on average, with global breaches averaging $4.45 million and ransomware at $1.54 million per incident, while the broader financial impact is projected to surge toward $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
03 · Category
Global Attack Volume29 stats
01
In 2023, the average number of weekly cyber attacks worldwide reached 2,465, marking a 10% increase from 2022.
02
DDoS attacks surged by 57% in 2023 compared to the previous year, totaling over 8 million incidents.
03
Ransomware attacks increased by 93% year-over-year in 2023, with 2,228 publicly disclosed incidents.
04
Phishing attacks accounted for 36% of all data breaches in 2023 according to the Verizon DBIR.
05
Weekly malware attacks averaged 5.5 million globally in Q4 2023.
06
In 2022, there were 1,802 ransomware attacks reported weekly worldwide.
07
Global cyber attack attempts hit 2.9 billion in a single day in 2023.
08
SQL injection attacks comprised 8% of web attacks in 2023.
09
Botnet attacks increased by 70% in 2023, targeting 45% more organizations.
10
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities led to 1,200 exploits per week in 2023.
11
Global DDoS attack duration averaged 10 hours per incident in 2023.
12
Ransomware victims paid an average of $1.54 million in 2023.
13
83% of organizations experienced more than one cyber attack in 2023.
14
Weekly cyber threats blocked reached 1.5 billion in 2023 by major firewalls.
15
Multi-vector attacks rose 28% in 2023, combining DDoS and malware.
16
Global phishing emails sent daily exceeded 3.4 billion in 2023.
17
Zero-day exploits used in 25% of advanced persistent threats in 2023.
18
Supply chain attacks impacted 61% of organizations in 2023 surveys.
19
Mobile malware samples grew to 12.7 million unique in 2023.
20
Global cyber attack costs projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
21
300,000 new malware variants detected daily in 2023.
22
DDoS attacks peaked at 3.8 Tbps in volume during 2023.
23
94% of malware delivered via email in 2023.
24
Global intrusions detected rose 42% in 2023.
25
Phishing sites active numbered over 1 million daily in 2023.
26
Ransomware groups active increased to 150 in 2023.
27
API attacks surged 681% in 2023.
28
Global password attacks hit 815 billion attempts in 2023.
29
Cryptojacking incidents doubled to 80 million in 2023.
Interpretation
Global Attack Volume Interpretation
Under the Global Attack Volume lens, 2023 saw a clear acceleration with weekly cyber attacks averaging 2,465 worldwide and ransomware climbing 93% year over year to 2,228 publicly disclosed incidents, signaling a sharp rise in the overall scale and impact of attacks.
More related reading
04 · Category
Industry Impacts25 stats
01
Healthcare was the most attacked industry with 19% of attacks in 2023.
02
Financial services experienced 16% of all reported breaches.
03
Retail sector saw 10% of phishing-related incidents.
04
Manufacturing faced 23% of ransomware attacks in 2023.
05
Government entities hit by 14% of DDoS attacks.
06
Education/research sector had 18% breach rate involving insiders.
07
Healthcare ransomware hit rate 67% of organizations.
08
Critical infrastructure targeted in 25% of nation-state attacks.
09
Tech sector accounted for 12% of supply chain compromises.
10
Energy/utilities saw 20% increase in intrusions.
11
Transportation industry faced 15% of IoT attacks.
12
Professional services had 11% of BEC scams.
13
Media/entertainment DDoS targeted 22% more in elections.
14
Pharma/chemicals vulnerable to IP theft in 30% cases.
15
Hospitality sector phishing success rate 14% higher.
16
Construction/engineering saw 17% malware incidents.
17
Telecom providers blocked 40% of global attacks.
18
Insurance faced highest breach costs at $5.9M avg.
19
Aerospace/defense targeted by 28% APT groups.
20
Wholesale trade had 9% of vulnerability exploits.
21
US healthcare providers suffered 689 breaches in 2023.
22
Finance sector lost $12.5B to cyber fraud in 2023.
23
Gaming industry DDoS attacks up 200% during peaks.
24
Legal services saw 13% insider threat incidents.
25
Automotive supply chain attacks impacted 45% firms.
Interpretation
Industry Impacts Interpretation
From an industry impacts perspective, the biggest pattern in 2023 is that key sectors were hit very differently, with healthcare leading overall at 19% of attacks while manufacturing accounted for 23% of ransomware attacks and government organizations made up 14% of DDoS targets.
05 · Category
Regional Statistics26 stats
01
US was site of 46% of global breaches in 2023.
02
Europe saw 25% of ransomware incidents worldwide.
03
Asia-Pacific region experienced 20% increase in DDoS.
04
India faced 1.6 million cyber attacks weekly in 2023.
05
UK reported 2,558 incidents to NCSC in last quarter 2023.
06
Australia saw 76,000 cyber incidents in 2023.
07
Brazil had 2.62 billion attacks in first half 2023.
08
Middle East DDoS attacks up 30% targeting finance.
09
Canada reported 15% rise in phishing to 35,000 cases.
10
Germany faced 80,000 attacks daily on infrastructure.
11
China blocked 59 million DDoS attacks in 2023.
12
Africa saw 15% of global BEC scams originating.
13
Japan experienced 6,452 cyber incidents in 2023.
14
Russia hosted 60% of top malware C2 servers.
15
Latin America ransomware victims up 50%.
16
France CERT reported 800 major incidents in 2023.
17
South Korea blocked 1.4 billion attacks in 2023.
18
Eastern Europe origin of 35% global phishing kits.
19
Mexico saw 400% rise in ransomware since 2020.
20
Netherlands 30% of EU cloud breaches.
21
UAE blocked 800 million attacks in 2023.
22
Singapore reported 1,663 incidents, up 20%.
23
Nigeria origin of 10% BEC complaints to FBI.
24
Italy faced 4,800 attacks on public admin.
25
Sweden CERT-SE handled 100,000 alerts.
26
Saudi Arabia telecom attacks up 200%.
Interpretation
Regional Statistics Interpretation
For Regional Statistics, the data shows how concentrated and escalating cyber threats are, with the US accounting for 46% of global breaches in 2023 and Europe driving 25% of worldwide ransomware incidents while Asia Pacific saw a 20% increase in DDoS.
report visual · Breakdown
Most Common Cyber Attack Drivers (2023)
Phishing and credential- and exploit-driven attacks dominate how breaches begin and progress.
23%
SQL injection responsible for 23% of web hacks in 2023.
77%
Fileless malware evaded detection in 77% of memory attacks.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Marcus Engström. (2026, February 13). Cyber Attacks Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyber-attacks-statistics
MLA
Marcus Engström. "Cyber Attacks Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/cyber-attacks-statistics.
Chicago
Marcus Engström. 2026. "Cyber Attacks Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/cyber-attacks-statistics.
Sources & references
38 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
akamai.com