With 2024 ending, lets look at the top 10 countries that were attacked by Cyber Attacks.

Research from the Blackberry group shows that the most attacked country is the United States with Japan being the second most attacked country.

1. United States (65% of cyberattacks)
2. Japan (8%)
3. Brazil (6%)
4. Canada (5%)
5. Australia (4%)
6. Mexico (4%)
7. South Korea (2%)
8. Chile (2%)
9. India (2%)
10. Peru (2%)

The countries most attacked are large countries with decent sized populations. The other reason seems to be based on internet availability and the United States in particular has internet access in many places.

That said when researching this I found that many sources such as usafacts are saying that the biggest reason is the monetary gain. When looking at the potential profit to be made over all per country it is undeniable that the United States is an alluring target for foreign adversaries.

Here are some reasons I have found for why the United States is the biggest target for Cyber Attacks.

1. Financial Gain: There are many thriving businesses in the United States that can be targets of foreign Cyber Attackers. It is both the wealth of the country and its large government that make it such a target.
2. Information Stealing: Also known as Espionage, information stealing is one reason which in many cases can coincide with Financial gain as with some hackers they can hold onto key servers, computers, and even cloud resources. Most of the time this is done through malware called Ransomware.
3. Sabotage: This is destruction of data, such as spreading malware or worms to various companies. A good example is hacking a Power Plant that powers a coastal town. The ways of hacking can be very similar as hackers exploit weak defenses in businesses and government entities alike.

In researching this I also found Idealism as a reason for attacking, but this in my opinion would most certainly be accompanied by one of the other reasons such as Sabotage or Financial Gain.

If you would like to hear more you can sign up for our new letter. You can also just go to our Contact Page and Contact us.