Government and development industries report a threefold decrease in critical cyber incidents in 2024
The annual Managed Detection and Response (MDR) analyst report provides insights into detected incidents, their nature, and their distribution across various industries and geographic regions. Additionally, it emphasises the most common tactics, techniques, and tools used by attackers over the previous year. The data is based on an analysis of incidents detected by Kaspersky MDR.
Compared to 2023, the mass media, development, and telecom industries experienced a significant increase in the number of incidents. However, when examining high-severity incidents—those that feature direct human involvement—the distribution reveals notable differences. In 2024, the MDR team identified that the majority of high-severity incidents occurred in IT (23%), followed by the government (18%) and industrial sectors (18%).
The report highlights a significant decrease in high-severity incidents within the government and development sectors, while the number of such incidents in the food sector increased. Additionally, a relatively large rise was observed in the industrial sector, alongside a slight increase in retail, IT, and telecoms. Interestingly, despite the mass media sector facing a substantial increase in overall incidents, this trend did not translate into a corresponding rise in high-severity incidents. This observation shows that many attack attempts were swiftly detected and mitigated, effectively preventing their severity from escalating beyond medium levels.
” In 2024, we revealed a shift in the landscape of cyber threats, with high-severity incidents increasingly concentrated in the food sector, underscoring the necessity for cybersecurity measures in this area. While the overall number of incidents surged in sectors like telecom and mass media, the resilience demonstrated in swiftly detecting and neutralising potential threats highlights the importance of proactive measures. As attackers refine tactics, organisations must adapt by investing in robust cybersecurity solutions that combine advanced technologies with expert oversight, “ comments Sergey Soldatov, Head of Security Operations Center at Kaspersky.
To strengthen your company’s protection against sophisticated attacks, deploy robust cybersecurity solutions and hire qualified practitioners to manage them or adopt managed security services such as Managed Detection and Response and Incident Response. These security services encompass the complete incident management cycle from threat identification to continuous protection and remediation. They assist in safeguarding against evasive cyberattacks, investigating incidents, and offering expert support even if a company lacks security workers.
