Check Point Research has published its global threat intelligence findings for August, showing that organisations faced an average of 2,422 cyberattacks a week. That was up 4% from the previous month and 22% from a year earlier.
The data points to growing pressure across several attack types, with ransomware incidents rising, phishing activity increasing, and risks linked to workplace use of generative artificial intelligence remaining widespread. The figures also suggest cyber threats continued to build across regions and sectors rather than being concentrated in a narrow set of targets.
Education remained the most targeted sector worldwide, recording 5,354 weekly attacks per organisation. Government ranked second with 3,067 weekly attacks, while Hospitality, Travel and Recreation moved into third place with 3,056, a 56% rise from a year earlier.
Regional patterns also shifted. Latin America remained the most attacked region, with 3,577 weekly attacks per organisation, up 25% year on year, while Europe posted the fastest annual growth at 28%. Africa reached 3,335 weekly attacks, and Asia-Pacific recorded 3,325.
Heavy attack volumes were not limited to one geography. Sectors with large user populations, frequent external interactions, and broad data flows continued to attract sustained attention from attackers.
AI exposure
Workplace use of generative AI continued to expand during the month. The average user generated 106 prompts, up from 95 in July and about 78 in June, while organisations used an average of seven different AI tools.
At the same time, one in every 43 prompts from enterprise networks posed a data exposure risk. High-risk prompt activity affected 86% of organisations that used generative AI regularly.
Healthcare and Medical recorded the highest rate of high-risk generative AI prompts at 4%, followed by Software at 3.6% and Business Services at 3.5%. By region, Latin America recorded the highest rate at 3.5%, above the global average of 2.3%.
Those numbers suggest the spread of AI tools is creating governance issues for employers handling sensitive, regulated, or proprietary information. Broad use of multiple tools also makes it harder to track where data is entered and whether it can be protected once shared.
Email threats
Email remained a common route for attacks. One in every 112 emails was classified as phishing, compared with one in every 128 in July.
Most phishing emails relied on links rather than attachments. Links appeared in 72% of phishing emails, while 14% contained attachments, reflecting continued use of credential-theft pages and malware-delivery sites.
Associations and Nonprofits recorded the highest phishing rate at 1.87%, followed by Construction and Engineering at 1.74%. Both sectors often depend on frequent communication with donors, suppliers, partners, or contractors, which can make suspicious messages harder to identify.
Ransomware rise
Ransomware activity also climbed in August. A total of 1,042 ransomware attacks were reported, almost double the level seen a year earlier and 8% higher than in July.
Business Services accounted for 36% of reported ransomware attacks, making it the most targeted industry by a wide margin. Industrial Manufacturing followed at 13% and Consumer Goods and Services at 12%.
The concentration in Business Services highlights the appeal of companies that sit across wider supplier and customer networks. A successful attack on such firms can affect multiple organisations beyond the immediate victim.
Among named ransomware groups, Qilin was the most active in August with 15% of published attacks. The Gentlemen followed with 10%, while Orova entered the top three for the first time with 4%.
Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research, commented on the latest figures.
“August’s data shows cyber risk expanding across several fronts at once. With attacks climbing, ransomware accelerating, phishing remaining a common entry point, and GenAI creating a new route for data exposure, security teams cannot rely on fragmented defences. They need prevention-first protection that combines visibility, control, and automation across network, cloud, endpoint, email, and AI usage to stop threats before they disrupt operations or expose sensitive information,” said Dembinsky.
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