New Delhi, May 5 (IANS): India witnessed an 18 per cent increase in weekly cyber attacks during the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, with each organisation facing an average of 2,108 attacks per week, a new report showed on Friday.

According to Check Point Research (CPR), the global weekly cyber attacks rose by 7 per cent in Q1 2023 versus the same quarter last year, with each organisation facing an average of 1,248 attacks per week.

Globally, in Q1 2023, the education/research sector was hit the hardest with the highest number of attacks, averaging 2,507 per organisation per week, representing a 15 per cent surge from Q1 2022.

The government/military sector was the second most targeted, with an average of 1,725 attacks per week, indicating a 3 per cent increase from the previous year.

The healthcare sector experienced a significant rise in attacks, with an average of 1,684 attacks per week, marking a substantial (year-over-year) increase of 22 per cent.

However, the most significant change came in the retail/wholesale sector, which saw the highest (year-over-year) increase of 49 per cent, with an average of 1,079 attacks per week.

The APAC (Asia-Pacific) region experienced the most significant (year-over-year) increase in average weekly attacks per organisation, with a surge of 16 per cent, reaching an average of 1,835 attacks per organisation, followed by the North American region, which saw a 9 per cent (year-over-year) increase coming to 950 average weekly attacks per organisation.

Moreover, the report showed that about one in every 31 organisations globally experienced a ransomware attack weekly in Q1 2023, representing a 1 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2022.

Latin America saw the largest (year-over-year) increase of 28 per cent when 1 out of 17 organisations experienced a ransomware attack.