Most of the attacks were part of cyber-crime campaigns

Feb 11, 2016 23:32 GMT  ·  By

The number of reported (known) cyber-incidents in 2015 grew compared to 2014, but it's still not as big as the number of attacks recorded in 2012 and 2013, Paolo Passeri reports for Hackmageddon, an infosec timeline and statistics service.

The data for the past year shows that, just like in 2014, most cyber-attacks were cyber-crime-related and motivated by monetary gains, accounting for 67% of all the incidents.

Hacktivism ranked second with 20.8%, followed by cyber-espionage (targeted attacks) with 9.8% and then by cyber warfare between rival cyber-crews with 2.4%.

There were no periods that had a spike of activity, and during all twelve months of 2015, the number of reported cyber-attacks ranged from 74 to 91, with the peak recorded in April. Except October, in all months, more incidents were recorded when compared to last year's numbers.

As for the hackers' favorite method of attack, SQL injections (database breaches) took the top spot from last year's attack method, which was low-level defacements, most of the times encountered only in hacktivism-tied incidents.

Note: The Hackmageddon cyber-attacks index only includes known attacks, so the real number may be way higher than the one included in Mr. Passeri's research. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting statistic that shows how the landscape has evolved over the past years.

Additionally, if you have some time to spare, Hackmageddon also provides a breakdown of all of 2015's cyber-attacks for each month.

Motivations behind attacks
Motivations behind attacks

Cyber-attacks statistics for 2015 (6 Images)

Number of attacks per month
Motivations behind attacksTop 10 attack techniques
+3more