Financial sector most frequently attacked

For the Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR), NTT Security analyzed data from trillions of logs and billions of attacks. The analysis is based on information about logs, events, attacks, incidents and vulnerabilities collected from all NTT Group companies. As usual, the new report provides an overview of global threat trends for a total of 18 industries.

Sectors strongly affected

GTIR 2019 shows that, in addition to the financial sector, business and professional services (24%), technology (17%), and manufacturing (9%) are among the most affected industries in the European Economic Area (EMEA). Web application attacks are primarily to blame, accounting for over 43% of hostile activity, well above the global average of 32%.

The financial industry in EMEA saw a rapid increase in web application attacks, which almost doubled from 22% to 43% last year. The manufacturing sector also experienced a massive increase from 9% to 42%.

"The financial industry is once again at the forefront when it comes to targeted attacks. This fact should be enough to convince management that investing in cyber security is an absolute must. Many financial firms are moving forward with digital transformation, but unfortunately without integrated security," said Kai Grunwitz, Senior Vice President EMEA at NTT Security. "While legacy methods and tools still provide a solid foundation for mitigating attacks, new attack methods are constantly being developed by criminals. Security managers should therefore ensure that basic protection is in place, but they also need to think about innovative solutions if they offer real added value."

Fix critical vulnerabilities as quickly as possible

"Some of the most widespread hacking activity in EMEA last year was web application attacks - and that's not surprising. In most cases, these attacks rely on the exploitation of open, unpatched vulnerabilities or misconfigured systems and target organizations with high volumes of business-critical data. The consequences can be devastating, with companies at risk of financial loss and economic espionage. The GTIR once again highlights the need to address critical vulnerabilities - whether legacy or new - in enterprises as quickly as possible, especially given the convergence of IT with operational technology."

In the list of countries from which attacks originate, China dropped by nearly 40% to 13% in this year's GTIR - trailing the United States at 16%. Interestingly, the top five most attacked industries in EMEA were attacked directly from the region (75%) and not from other countries. This shows cyber criminals are using regional sources for their attacks. The fact that the majority come from the same region and often even the same country as the victim is more pronounced in EMEA than in other regions.

The GTIR 2019 provides a comprehensive overview of today's cyber threat landscape.

Source: NTT Security