Hacking Statistics to Give You Nightmares

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The World Wide Web’s unexpected sprawl has somehow turned the world into a single cyber village. But new threats arose as the world shifted from a physical to a digital landscape.

Criminals began looting the web’s wide-open corporate databases. Social media platforms attracted hackers and practically invited them to invent digital identity theft. Viruses, phishing attacks, and ransomware became common.

Only the most naive now leave data unprotected. Security has become big business. Experts say we’ll spend $10 billion annually on cybersecurity by 2027.

Here are eye-opening hacking statistics to prevent you from becoming a cyber victim.

Key Hacking Statistics for 2023

  • More than 22 billion corporate records were leaked in 2022.
  • Ransomware attacks happen every 2 seconds.
  • 43% of cyber attacks are targeted at small businesses.
  • The average cost of a corporate data breach will reach $5 million by 2023.
  • 95% of cyberattacks are due to human error.
  • Approximately 30,000 websites get hacked each day globally.
  • Every day, some 300,000 new malware instances are produced.
  • Phishing emails are responsible for about 91% of cyber attacks against large corporations.

Social Media Hacking Statistics for 2023

It is no longer news that hackers target social media users as they always upload their personal information whenever they open any social media account. 

This allows them to hack into the different mobile app databases and steal valuable personal details of social media users, especially those with weak passwords and, worst-case scenario, those who did not enable two-factor authentication.

Below are the trending social media hacking statistics for 2023.

1. Over 1 million Facebook accounts were compromised in a data breach in 2022.

(Dataconomy)

Facebook announced that hackers could access personal information for over 1 million exposed accounts in the 2022 breach. According to hacking statistics, about a million victims escaped without stealing their personal information. 

Facebook product management VP Guy Rosen said that no credit information was sold to the dark web marketplace, and no third-party apps were granted access.

2. Email hacking statistics collected by Verizon show that phishing attempts are responsible for 80% of malware infections and nearly 95% of all espionage attacks.

(ThreatSim)  

Social engineering attacks can take many forms, but phishing scams remain the primary tool of modern hackers, say experts who analyze cyber threats.

Scams are carefully planned and designed to fool employees into sharing information or downloading malware. Hackers then activate the malware to retrieve data. It’s all in a day’s work among cybersecurity ventures.

3. 96% of baby boomer users don’t trust social media platforms to protect their data. Members of Gen X (94%), Gen Z (93%), and the millennial generation (92%) say much the same.

(Comparitech)

Online anonymity was once a comfortable giving. These days, social media hacking statistics show that even giant services like Facebook and Google can’t protect data. People are scared.

Baby boomers are the most conservative age group. They hope for privacy both at work and at home. Younger people are more comfortable with technology but also have a healthy distrust of social media platforms.

They are right to worry. Social hacking is everywhere.

4. Nearly one-third (36%) of all data breaches in 2022 involved phishing.

(Verizon)

According to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigation Report, which contains updated statistics on phishing scams, nearly 36% of all reported data breaches in 2022 involved phishing activity.

Researchers found that email fraud was also the primary tool in 78% of cyber-espionage incidents.

5. 50% of phishing attacks contain links to malware.

(Avanan)

Avanan researchers have found that half of all phishing emails contain links to malware.

This type of attack is the most common by far. Identity theft phishing statistics reveal that the purpose of these attacks is usually to hijack one’s device, steal data, launch a DDoS attack, or commit fraud.

What makes malware so harmful? The answer is that it comes in many variations and spreads incredibly quickly. All fraudsters need is a single click on a malicious link, and the whole organization is compromised.

6. 40% of U.S. consumers believe it is unethical for companies to target advertisements and product recommendations based on online purchases and browsing information.

(Lytics)

Statistics on social media hacking confirm unease and distrust among users. Experts say that 30 to 40% of advertisements are part of the cybercrime economy on some platforms. It is no wonder that more than half of U.S. consumers believe social media platforms must adequately safeguard their data.

7. Private groups on public platforms let criminals discuss their exploits freely. On Facebook, 53% of messages in hacker groups are related to hijacking credit cards. Account takeovers are mentioned in 16% of messages.

(Gitnux)

Social media platforms are full of hackers looking to commit computer crimes. A lot of private information is being shared online through private groups. Criminals use social media to scout potential victims and exploit the platforms’ features. 

8. Criminal hackers earn a global revenue of $1.1 million yearly.

(Tech News World)

Social media is ripe with information criminals, and hackers can use it. These vary from data, identity theft, or personal and private information black market. The yearly revenue of hackers is still questionable since most of them go unreported or unrecorded. 

Cybercrime group Conti has an estimated $150 to $180 million in revenue. Values are estimates that Trend Micro leaked. 

Email Phishing Statistics

Emails are not left out; hackers send malicious spam messages with unique and catchy subjects to lure users into opening them. Opening these harmful emails can cause significant damage to them as they will gain access to the device and scan for important information that they can use.

Let’s scan through the current email phishing statistics as of 2023.

9. Over 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent daily.

(Get Astra)

Phishing email statistics show that nearly 1.2% of emails are malicious. The implication of this is that 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent daily. Thus, 1 out of 4,200 emails sent is a phishing scam email.

10. 54% of phishing emails contain malware or redirect to infected links and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. 

(Statista)

Hacking statistics reveal that phishing strategies are essential to most cybersecurity incidents targeting businesses. The numbers will keep increasing as long as people click on toxic links in suspicious emails.

11. 87% of senior managers upload business files to a personal email account or cloud-based storage.

(Software Connect)

Most recent computer hacking statistics show that most senior managers must be more careful. If employees find security systems too tricky or inconvenient, they will not use them. Even though we’d like to think that upper management is more concerned with security standards and knowledgeable about all types of cyberattacks, it’s not true.

About 55% of middle managers find security systems too simple. As a result, they put their entire company at risk. And rank-and-file employees believe security should be IT’s problem to solve.

12. Phishing emails account for about 91% of cyber attacks against enterprise-class corporations.

(About SSL)

9 out of 10 cybersecurity threats in large corporations can be traced to phishing attempts. PhishMe tested this number by sending over 40 million simulated phishing emails to over 1,000 organizations.

91% of them were received and opened by customers.

13. 46% of hackers disseminating malware deliver it almost exclusively through email. 

(Verizon) 

“Be careful with your emails,” the experts are warning us. According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigation Report, malicious files include Word, Excel, and other formats.

Corporate and Small-Business Hacking Statistics

Small businesses are the primary target of cyber attacks, and hackers show no sign of stopping. Small businesses account for 43% of cyber attacks annually, and 46% of cyber attacks were small businesses with 1,000 or fewer employees. 

Below are critical small business hacking statistics you need to know in 2023.

14. 112.3 million IoT malware attacks were detected in 2022.

(Sonicwall)

Internet of Things devices is slowly but steadily finding their way into our homes. But you pay the price for convenience; these devices also carry various security risks. Unfortunately, IoT is a massive malware target for everyone looking to create a smart home. The newest malware statistics show more than 20 million IoT malware attacks were detected in the first half of 2020 alone.

15. In 2022, 83% of UK businesses suffered a phishing attack.

(AAG-IT)

Four in 10 businesses and 2 in 10 charity organizations became a part of U.K. hacking statistics during the last 12 months. This rises to 7 in 10 among large companies. Many attacks gained access to corporate data via personal devices that staff members used.

16. Over  63% of organizations still need a cyber security incident response plan.

(Venture Beat)

Statistics of hacking directed at businesses show that many organizations still need to formulate cybersecurity incident response plans. In Europe, such methods are mandated and specified within GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation.

Most organizations tell researchers that they track cyber-attack news and are aware of the risks but are not fully compliant with GDPR.

17. 46% of data breach victims were from companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.

(Strong DM)

It’s not that the people committing cybercrimes prefer to attack smaller companies with less money. It’s just that big corporations have more robust security systems in place.

The corporations are also more informed on why cybersecurity is critical and these systems are necessary. Many small businesses need the means to introduce proper defenses.

18. Recent data breach statistics indicate that most companies, even the largest, take nearly 7 months to detect a data breach.

(IBM)

Companies like Equifax, Capital One, and Facebook can be compromised for weeks or months without notice.

This is why IBM statistics show that it takes companies 212 days to detect a data breach in their organizations and 75 days to contain it. An average breach cycle takes 287 days.

Mobile Malware Statistics for 2023

Mobile phone users are frequent targets for malware attacks, especially users without solid passwords and multi-factor authentication enabled as an extra layer of security.

These will expose you to the trending mobile malware statistics in 2023.

19. Third-party app stores host virtually all mobile malware threats.

(MUO)

According to Symantec, third-party app stores hosted 99.9% of detected mobile malware and are the leading cause of recent security breaches involving mobile devices.

20. Cyber hacking statistics for 2022 showcase that over 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked daily from app stores.

(Techjury)

Apple stands out as a company generally in total control because it owns its app store. It has nonetheless had to fight recent cyberattacks in 2022 on iPhones and tablets. Android has longed to secure the app store since developers are granted more freedom.

The Android community has learned the hacking facts of life the hard way and has now improved security measures. Most mobile devices require user approval before installing unverified third-party applications, substantially reducing the mobile cyber threat.

21. Android is the most targeted mobile platform.

(Norton)

According to recent statistics of hacking in the United States, Android remains the top target for internet attacks despite new security measures that are updated and improved daily. However, many Android devices remain vulnerable because their owners must update the core operating software.

22. Cell phone hacking statistics show that over 60% of fraud originates from mobile devices.

(Zippia)

The world has gone mobile, and so have fraudsters. Of the world’s cyberattacks, around 60% are initiated on mobile devices.

About 80% of attacks against mobile devices take place via apps. Apps give hackers access to your device under the hood, so they can easily access your mobile banking app and initiate multiple levels of cybercrime.

We can’t talk about statistics on mobile security without mentioning hackers. Compared to the same period in 2021, the first half of 2022 saw a massive increase in cyber attacks and malware targeting smartphones.

Ransomware Attack Statistics

There are about 620.5 million ransomware attacks yearly. The first half of 2022 saw nearly 236.7 million ransomware attacks worldwide. There were 33 publicly disclosed ransomware attacks in January 2023, the highest number of attacks we have ever recorded for January.

With this alarming rise in ransomware attacks, one should know the importance of securing their devices adequately.

23. Cybersecurity statistics illustrate that ransomware attacks have grown by over 13% in the last five years.

(Get Astra)

This attack was initially designed to hijack target systems and hold them hostage in exchange for specific demands. Such events were rare just a decade ago and far from cyber attacks news.

In the last five years, ransomware attacks have increased by 13%, costing $1.85 million on average for each incident. According to studies, there will be a ransomware assault every two seconds by 2031; in the first half of 2022, there were almost 236.7 million such attacks worldwide.

Cyber attackers have evolved ransomware. However, introducing cryptocurrencies provided the missing piece – a way to collect ransom while anonymous.

24. Businesses are predicted to fall victim to a ransomware attack every 2 seconds in 2031.

(Cyber Security Ventures)

The one thing that differentiates cybercrime from any other crime is that attackers have systems that can steal automatically, around the clock. If you have been wondering how many cyber attacks per day, note that hackers can attack multiple targets quickly, even just a second or two.

25. Hacking attacks in medical statistics reveal that ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations will grow to five times their current rate by 2021.

(Fierce Healthcare)

The healthcare industry is no stranger to cyber attacks.

Check out cyberattack statistics by year and look into the numbers for healthcare organizations. You will see that hardly a week has passed without a breached general practice, medical charity, or hospital. Plagued by a combination of high-value data and minimal cybersecurity budgets, healthcare organizations are an easy target for cyber attackers.

26. Computer hacking statistics estimate ransomware cost businesses and organizations $4.5 million in 2022.

(Get Astra)

These attacks aren’t slowing down soon, and cyber security facts will probably be even more shocking a year or two from now. The most recent case involved the local government of Jackson County, Georgia, which had to pay $400,000 in ransom to regain control of county computers.

27. Personal health information seems 10 to 40 times more valuable on the black market than financial information.

(Cyber Policy)

The FBI has warned healthcare providers to guard their health information since hackers can sell large batches of personal data on the dark web.

In the meantime, fraudsters use this data to create fake IDs to buy medical equipment or drugs that can be easily resold.

Data Breach Statistics for 2023

How do data breaches happen? How much data are compromised? And what are the ramifications of such events? 

These data breach statistics will give you the answers you are searching for.

28. In 2022, over 15 million data records were lost or stolen online.

(Statista)

The Breach Level Index is a global database that tracks data breaches, facts about Internet security, and breach severity.

Statista reported that over 15 million data records had been stolen worldwide in the third quarter of 2022. 

29. Roughly 147 million card numbers and expiration dates were stolen from Equifax in its 2017 data breach.

(Reuters)

It is not very comforting to learn that one of the three credit reporting agencies failed to secure the massive amount of personal information in its custody, leading to one of the most infamous data breaches in 2017. As a part of the proposed settlement, Equifax was obliged to pay more than $700 million to a fund that will give affected consumers credit monitoring services and cover their damages.

30. Statistics on data breaches and costs suggest that these costs will increase to over $5 trillion globally by 2024.

(Juniper Research)

Since 2015, computer security news reports have warned that the cost of data breaches will increase almost fourfold by 2024.

Growth rates and vulnerability vary from country to country.

31. Statistics on hacking in the U.S. reveal that over 1,802 cases of records were leaked in 2022.

(Statista)

Researchers say 1,802 user records were leaked in 2022. Major data breaches include MongoDB, whose 854 GB of CVs containing sensitive information about 422 million individuals was exposed, along with the Oklahoma government data breach, which revealed more than seven years of FBI investigations.

Conclusion

The world relies on technology more than ever before. Digital data creation has surged. Unfortunately, from infiltrations on infrastructure and data breaches to spear phishing and brute force, online cyber threats are a growing problem – and they don’t discriminate organizations from individuals when looking for a target.

If you follow statistics on hacking in the United States, you will realize that hacker danger is never static. Millions of new hacking strategies are created every year. It’s easy to get frustrated over the severity of the threat environment you find yourself in. However, it is possible to defend yourself – whether you want to protect your business or your family.

Patching operating systems with updates promptly is one good rule. Maintain password hygiene, too – change your passwords often or use a password manager. Install good antivirus software. And beware of phishing attacks. You surely don’t want to contribute to these hair-raising hacking statistics.

FAQ

How many people get hacked a year?

There were more than 111.7 million Americans are hacked yearly.

How many sites are hacked every day?

More than 30,000 WordPress websites are hacked daily.

Can antivirus stop hackers?

Some antivirus programs protect from hackers. Norton Antivirus has proven to protect your device from many tools hackers use.

How many cybersecurity attacks are there per day?

According to a recent study, every 39 seconds, an individual with internet access could be attacked. In comparison, every 13.275 seconds, a business falls victim to a ransomware attack.

What are the three types of hackers?

There are three types of hackers: White Hat hackers who create algorithms and test existing internet infrastructure, Black Hat hackers who break into systems with hostile intentions, and lastly, there are Grey Hat hackers who break into systems but not for their benefit.

Do firewalls prevent hackers?

Antivirus programs and firewalls stop hackers in some ways, but they can never provide complete protection.

How much does cybercrime cost the US per year?

The cost of ransomware costs will reach $10.5 trillion in 2025.

How many cyber attacks happened in 2022?

Hacking statistics for 2022 show about 236.1 million ransomware attacks in the first half of 2022.

What percentage of attacks is phishing?

Hacking statistics for 2022 show that phishing attacks are responsible for about 16% of malware infections.

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