News
Over 700 cyberattacks on government agencies since 2006: 2023’Q1 was full of cyber espionage cases
May 2023 by Surfshark
Surfshark’s chart of the week shows that the first quarter of 2023 has already seen 32 significant cyberattacks on government agencies. Out of which, 9 were reported to be cyber espionage.
Yearly tendencies show that:
• Close to half of the analyzed incidents happened over the last three years. The attacks on the governments varied from malware and ransomware attacks to social engineering and disinformation campaigns;
• Since 2006, there have been at least 722 cyberattacks on government agencies. 15% of them were reportedly carried out as part of cyber espionage campaigns, meaning they were executed by state-sponsored threat actors;
• Before 2020, around 29 cyberattacks on government agencies were reported every year, and this number rose to a yearly average of 96 with the start of a new decade;
• Russian hackers striking on the French National Assembly website was the most recent case noted by CSIS. In March also, the U.S. federal agency was targeted by multiple attackers, including a Vietnamese espionage group.
Methodology: Drawing on data from the Center for Strategic & International Studies, we analyzed 924 significant cyber incidents that took place between 2006 and 2023’Q1 (inclusive).
