Armis announces new data in The Anatomy of Cybersecurity: A Dissection of 2023's Attack Landscape. The 2023 analysis of Armis’ proprietary data offers critical insight into the multifaceted challenges global organizations face when it comes to protecting the entire attack surface. Report findings serve as a blueprint to help security teams worldwide prioritize efforts to reduce cyber risk exposure in 2024.
The report found that global attack attempts more than doubled in 2023, increasing 104%. Utilities (over 200% increase) and Manufacturing (165% increase) were the most at-risk industries. Attack attempts peaked in July, with communications devices, imaging devices and manufacturing devices experiencing intensified targeting during this period.
“Armis found that not only are attack attempts increasing, but cybersecurity blind spots and critical vulnerabilities are worsening, painting prime targets for malicious actors,” says Nadir Izrael, CTO and co-founder, Armis. “It’s critical that security teams leverage similar intelligence defensively so that they know where to prioritize efforts and fill these gaps to mitigate risk. We hope that by sharing these insights, global businesses and governments will leverage them to immediately pinpoint what they should be focusing on to improve their cybersecurity posture this year to keep critical infrastructure, economies and society safe and secure.”
Key Takeaways:
- Cyberwarfare grew more widespread in 2023. Top industries exposed to attack from Chinese and Russian actors were those within Manufacturing, Educational Services and Public Administration. In manufacturing, .cn and .ru domains contributed to an average of 30% of monthly attack attempts, while attacks from these domains on Educational Services have risen to about 10% of total attacks.
- Older Windows server OS versions (2012 and earlier) are 77% more likely to experience attack attempts compared to newer Windows Server versions. This vulnerability is particularly evident in the server environment, with nearly a quarter of server versions facing end-of-support (EoS) scenarios. The Educational Services industry has a significantly higher percentage of servers (41%) with unpatched weaponized Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), compared to the general average of 10%.
- There were over 65,000 unique CVEs discovered in 2023. Wearable devices have the highest percentage (93%) of unpatched CVEs.
