By Sector

The financial, utilities and retail sectors accounted for nearly 60% of ransomware detections. Health care followed at 17% and public sector at 15%. Notable sector increases from the second to the third quarter include finance/insurance (21%) and health care (7%).

“We have to consider this is based on what we are seeing, and there are likely many more unreported attacks happening,” Samani said. “However, across the board, it should come as no surprise attackers are making a lot of money through digital crime across all sectors.”

Malware was the technique used most often in reported incidents during the third quarter, but reported malware incidents decreased 24% compared to the second quarter.

Sector increases from the second to the third quarter include distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, up 112%, and targeted attacks, up 55%.