Organisations faced an average of 1,994 cyberattacks per week in August.
This was revealed by Check Point’s Global Threat Intelligence Report for August 2025. That’s slightly down from July, just 1%, but still 10% higher than a year ago.
The picture is clear: cyber threats remain persistent and intense.
Industries Under Pressure
Education remained the hardest hit. Schools and universities saw 4,178 attacks per week, a 13% rise year-on-year. The reasons are familiar. Digital expansion has widened the attack surface. Security budgets lag behind. Attackers know it.
Telecoms were next. Providers endured 2,992 weekly attacks, up 28% from last year. They are critical infrastructure and a doorway into wider networks. Both qualities make them attractive targets.
Government organisations recorded 2,634 attacks per week, up a modest 3%. Agriculture, though, jumped sharply. Weekly attacks doubled to 1,667. Connected sensors, drones, and other smart systems have made food production a tempting target. Technology meets necessity. That draws attention.
Regional Trends
The UK averaged 1,381 weekly attacks per organisation, an 18% increase year-on-year. Europe overall rose 13% to 1,685. North America saw a 20% spike, driven largely by ransomware. The U.S. alone accounted for over half of global cases.
Africa faced the highest raw volume, with 3,239 attacks per week per organisation, slightly down from last year. Asia-Pacific reported 2,877 weekly attacks, a 2% rise. Latin America reached 2,865, up 6%. Rapid digitisation is a factor across these regions, but investment in resilience has lagged.
Ransomware Still a Major Threat
Ransomware continues to disrupt at scale. There were 531 publicly reported incidents globally in August, up 14% year-on-year. North America was hardest hit, 57% of cases. Europe followed with 24%.
Industrial manufacturing bore the brunt at 13.6% of attacks. Business services accounted for 11.9%. Construction and engineering reached 10.4%. Other sectors (healthcare, consumer goods, financial services) were also affected.
The most active gangs were Qilin (16%), Akira (8%), and Inc. Ransom (6%). Inc. Ransom is focusing on healthcare and education. Both sectors are central to public trust and daily life.
Prevention First
Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research, says: “August’s threat data makes one thing clear: cyberattacks are intensifying in both volume and impact. Education, telecoms, and agriculture are being targeted because they are essential and because attackers know disruption here creates maximum leverage.”
He added that with ransomware rising and AI accelerating attack speed, the only sustainable path forward is a prevention-first, AI-powered strategy. “Organisations must move beyond detection to real-time prevention, protecting the network, cloud, endpoints, and identities in an integrated way. Only by doing so can we build resilience and safeguard critical services against relentless cyber adversaries.”
Information Security Buzz News Editor
Kirsten Doyle has been in the technology journalism and editing space for nearly 24 years, during which time she has developed a great love for all aspects of technology, as well as words themselves. Her experience spans B2B tech, with a lot of focus on cybersecurity, cloud, enterprise, digital transformation, and data centre. Her specialties are in news, thought leadership, features, white papers, and PR writing, and she is an experienced editor for both print and online publications.
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