Governments are the biggest targets for cyber attackers

Cyberattacks against the government sector increased by 100 percent in 2016, rising up to 14 percent, according to a new report by Dimension Data. The financial sector has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of attacks, from three percent in 2015 to 14 percent in 2016.

The manufacturing sector is now on third place with 13 percent of all attacks while retail, which used to be the number one target, fell to fourth place with 11 percent. Poor retail.

This data was published in Dimension Data’s Executive’s Guide to the NTT Security 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report. The report itself was created on data gathered by NTT Security and Dimension Data, pulling in information from 10,000 of its clients across five continents. It is based on 3.5 trillion security logs and 6.2 billion attempted attacks in 100 countries.

There have been a couple of events that might have led to the government sector taking the crown, including the US presidential elections, a new US administration with a more aggressive stance towards China and North Korea, a more aggressive China when it comes to securing its vital "core interests," US and Europe’s sanctions towards Russia, to name a few.

"Governments all over the world are constantly under the threat of sophisticated attacks launched by rival nation-states, terrorist groups, hacktivists and cybercriminals," says Matthew Gyde, Dimension Data’s group executive, Security.

"That’s because government agencies hold vast amounts of sensitive information -- from personnel records, budgetary data and sensitive communications to intelligence findings. What’s interesting is that this year we saw numerous incidents involving insider threats."

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