Software is the most targeted sector for cyber attacks

In Belgium, the number of cyber attacks has increased by more than two-thirds compared to the third quarter of last year. Striking: in our country, software suppliers are the most hounded. Last quarter, healthcare was the most targeted sector. This is evident from research by Check Point Research.

Belgian companies are attacked most often from the US (44 percent), followed by attacks from the Netherlands (13 percent) and their own country (12 percent). One note is that these are the countries recorded as the last ‘dispatch point’ of the attack, while the country of origin is often elsewhere. Hackers try so geoblockers to bypass and hide behind compromised devices or botnets to initiate their attack from there.

The increase in the number of cyber attacks is striking. While an increase of 31 percent was already noted in Belgium in the second quarter, the increase for Q3 amounts to 69 percent. The top three most affected sectors have also changed with software vendors in first place with an average of 2,611 attacks per week, followed by healthcare (an average of 2,501). Healthcare was still number one in the second quarter. The financial sector ranks third in terms of attacks, with an average of 2,031 attacks every week.

Type of vulnerability

The most common type of vulnerability, according to the research, is remote code executionaccounting for 65 percent of all vulnerabilities in Belgium. Such an attack occurs when malicious code is executed on an organization’s computers or network. The attacker’s ability to execute such controlled code can be used for various purposes, such as deploying additional malware or stealing sensitive data. The top malware in Belgium is AndroxGh0st, a botnet that targets Windows, Mac and the Linux platform. Of all malicious files, 58 percent are sent via the web and 42 percent via email.