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In 2024, cyber threats have not only increased, they have also become more complex, and their impact has significantly worsened, according to recent report findings. Criminals can now exfiltrate data in just a few hours, and they have increased their ransom demands.
The 2025 Global Incident Response Report from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 team reveals a worrying trend: Cyberattacks are not only becoming faster and more sophisticated, but are increasingly aimed at crippling companies' operations rather than simply stealing data. The analysis of over 500 serious security incidents in 38 countries reveals.
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500 serious security incidents
- The number of insider attacks linked to North Korea tripled in 2024. Technology companies were particularly targeted, followed by financial services, media, retail, logistics, entertainment, telecommunications, IT services, and state-owned defense companies.
- The average first ransom demand increased by nearly 2023 percent to $80 million in 1,25 compared to 2024. This is directly related to the fact that 86 percent of incidents in 2024 caused business disruption, reputational damage, or both. Threat actors specifically exploited the plight of organizations struggling with extended downtime, strained partner and customer relationships, and the negative impact on business.
- Attackers are working significantly faster: In 25 percent of cases, data was exfiltrated within five hours – three times faster than in 2021. In almost 20 percent of incidents, this even happened in less than an hour.
- 70 percent of incidents affected three or more areas, highlighting the need to protect endpoints, networks, cloud environments, and the human factor equally. Web browsers are a major vulnerability: 44 percent of incidents involved malicious activities initiated or facilitated through employee browsers via phishing, malicious redirects, and malware downloads.
- Phishing is once again the most common attack vector: 23 percent of attacks began with phishing attacks, which are now scalable and more difficult to detect and defend against thanks to generative artificial intelligence.
About Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks, the global leader in cybersecurity solutions, is shaping the cloud-based future with technologies that transform the way people and businesses work. Our mission is to be the preferred cybersecurity partner and protect our digital way of life. We help you address the world's biggest security challenges with continuous innovation leveraging the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, analytics, automation, and orchestration. By delivering an integrated platform and empowering a growing ecosystem of partners, we are the leaders in protecting tens of thousands of businesses across clouds, networks and mobile devices. Our vision is a world where every day is safer than the one before.
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