Cyberattacks became more targeted, sophisticated, and severe in 2023 as attackers pivoted to leverage generative AI, according to a Barracuda report.
Evolved attacks called for greater remediation time and resources, spiking average annual remediation costs for the year.
“The purpose of this research is to understand the economic consequences when a hacker decides to target an organization,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute, the research firm that conducted the survey for the report. “To get an international perspective, a total of 1,917 IT security practitioners were surveyed in organizations with a headcount of between 100 to 5,000.”
The countries included in the survey are the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Australia.
Attacks evolved using emerging technologies
From the 57% of respondents who admitted to experiencing one or more cyberattacks in the past 12 months, most said the cyberattacks they experienced were more sophisticated (62%), severe (55%), and targeted (52%) than before.
“Increased focus on going digital, faster pace of technology innovation, distributed or hybrid systems, increased sophistication of cyberattacks and lack of awareness on cybersecurity are adding up to an increased number of cyberattacks,” said IDC Vice President Sharath Srinivasamurthy.
