AI-enhanced phishing affected over 90% of organisations and contributed to a 222% surge in email attacks in 2023 as compared to the second half of 2022, according to “Acronis Cyberthreats Report, H2 2023” by Acronis.
AI-enhanced attacks
Moreover, the report reveals that organisations experienced a 54% increase in attacks.
Alarmingly, 91.1% of organisations faced AI-enhanced phishing attacks as malicious actors increasingly used generative AI-powered cyberattacks and malicious content.
“There’s a disturbing trend being recognised globally where bad actors continue to leverage ChatGPT and similar generative AI systems to increase cyber attack efficiency, create malicious code, and automate attacks,” says Candid Wüest, Acronis VP of Product Management.
Threat landscape
In the global threat landscape, Singapore, Spain, and Brazil emerged as the most targeted focus countries for malware attacks in Q4 2023.
The report revealed that ransomware continues to impact critical sectors such as government and health care, becoming a major threat to large and medium-sized enterprises. Aside from ransomware, data stealers are the second most prevalent threat to enterprises, contributing to most data breaches.
“Now, more than ever, corporations need to prioritise comprehensive cyber protection solutions to ensure business continuity,” says Wüest.