High-severity cyber incidents drop threefold in government sector: report

This contrasts with the food, IT, telecom, and industrial sectors, which experienced an increase in critical incidents during the same period.

Government and development industries reported a threefold decrease in high-severity cyber incidents in 2024.

The Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response (MDR) analyst report noted this reduction contrasts with the food, IT, telecom, and industrial sectors, which experienced an increase in critical incidents during the same period.

It also highlighted that in 2024, the IT sector accounted for the largest share of high-severity incidents (23%), followed by the government (18%) and industrial sectors (18%).

Despite a significant rise in overall incidents in the mass media sector, these did not escalate to high severity levels, thanks to effective threat detection and mitigation strategies.

Kaspersky noted a substantial rise in high-severity incidents within the food sector, underlining the growing need for robust cybersecurity measures in this area. Similarly, the industrial sector witnessed a notable increase, whilst retail, IT, and telecom sectors showed slight growth in such incidents.

Interestingly, although the mass media sector faced a significant uptick in total incidents, swift detection, and proactive responses prevented these threats from escalating to critical levels.

Sergey Soldatov, Head of Security Operations Center at Kaspersky, stated that 2024 revealed a shift in cyber threat patterns, with high-severity incidents becoming more concentrated in the food sector.

To strengthen protection against sophisticated cyberattacks, Kaspersky recommended that companies deploy robust cybersecurity solutions and hire qualified practitioners.

Alternatively, organisations can opt for managed security services, such as Managed Detection and Response and Incident Response, which provide comprehensive incident management, from threat identification to continuous protection and remediation.