- AI is feeding a great increase in cyber attacks
- The United States is the main objective of ransomware attacks
- Threat actors are resorting to vulnerable assets
It will not be a surprise for many cybersecurity professionals, but the AI is behind a drastic increase in the number of cyber attacks, with a new Fortinet research that reveals the appearance scale of the problem.
The study found that the interannual automated scan activity has seen an increase of 16.7%, with 36,000 scanning per second registered worldwide, with the investigation that describes threat actors such as “displacement” towards vulnerable digital assets “previously in the attack life cycle”, in particular, remote desk desk protocol, IoT systems and session initiation protocols.
Infantes infants have been threatening organizations for a long time, but this research has presented an amazing 500% increase in the available records of committed systems, which means that more than 1.7 billion stolen credentials are circulating in the dark network, pointing out: “This flooding of stolen data has led to a strong increase in attacks directed against companies and individuals.”
A call to action
The report warns that cybercriminals are also taking advantage of these login details, with a 42% increase in the credentials compromised for sale.
Interestingly, zero day attacks only represent a “small percentage” of threats, and cybercriminals are increasingly using the vulnerabilities of “Live of the Land” to remain without being detected.
The Ransomware panorama as a service is expanding, with new emerging groups and the old players solidify their profits. Ransomhub was the most active group in 2024, claiming 13%of the victims, with Lockbit 3.0 (12%), the game (8%) and Medusa (4%), all closely followed.
These ransomware attacks are pointing to a particular country, with the United States taking 61%of the incidents, followed by the United Kingdom with 6%, and Canada at 5%, a strong indication of the trend against US organizations.
“Our 2025 overall threat scene report makes it clear: cybercounts are climbing faster than ever, using AI and automation to win the advantage,” said Derek Manky, head of security chief and global vice president of threat intelligence in Fortiguard Labs.
“Defenders must abandon obsolete security plays books and transition to proactive strategies and intelligence that incorporate AI, zero trusted architectures and continuous management of exposure to threats.”
