The Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape

A Decade in Review: Global Cybersecurity Threats 2015-2024

Author

Patrick Lefler

Published

November 14, 2025

NoteExecutive Summary

Key Findings from 10 Years of Global Cybersecurity Data (2015-2024):

  • $155.7 billion in total financial losses across 3,000 documented incidents
  • DDoS and Ransomware attacks dominate the threat landscape, accounting for 60% of all incidents
  • Healthcare, IT, and Banking sectors face the highest financial exposure
  • Nation-state actors increasingly target critical infrastructure with sophisticated zero-day exploits
  • AI-based detection systems show 35% faster incident resolution times compared to traditional defenses
  • 2024 emerging trend: Zero-day vulnerabilities up 47% from 2023, signaling escalating sophistication

Strategic Recommendation: Organizations must prioritize proactive threat intelligence, accelerate patch management cycles, and invest in AI-driven security operations to counter the evolving threat landscape.

1 The Financial Impact of Cyber Threats

1.1 Aggregate Losses by Year

 

1.2 The Changing Face of Cyber Threats

 

1.3 Financial Impact by Attack Type

2 Industry Sector Analysis

2.1 Financial Impact Heatmap

Financial Loss Heatmap: Industry × Year

2.2 Most Targeted Industries

Industry Risk Profile
Cumulative metrics by target industry (2015-2024)
Industry Incidents Cumulative Loss Avg Loss/Incident Avg Resolution Users Affected
IT 478 $24.81B $51.90M 36.2 hrs 250.09M
Banking 445 $22.77B $51.17M 35.7 hrs 225.10M
Government 403 $21.21B $52.62M 37.6 hrs 201.24M
Retail 423 $21.12B $49.93M 37.2 hrs 206.78M
Healthcare 429 $21.04B $49.05M 35.8 hrs 216.27M
Telecommunications 403 $20.46B $50.77M 37.1 hrs 199.57M
Education 419 $20.07B $47.90M 35.9 hrs 215.00M

3 Geographic Threat Distribution

4 Attack Sophistication Index

4.1 Vulnerability Type Analysis

 

4.2 Attack Source Analysis

5 Incident Response Effectiveness

5.1 Resolution Time Analysis

5.2 Defense Mechanism Effectiveness

7 Methodology & Data Notes

Data Source: Global Cybersecurity Threat Database covering 3,001 documented incidents across 12 countries from 2015-2024.

Coverage: This analysis includes reported incidents from major economies (USA, China, India, UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Australia) across seven key industry sectors.

Limitations: This dataset represents documented and reported incidents. Actual incident volumes may be significantly higher due to underreporting, particularly in sectors with limited disclosure requirements.

Analysis Approach: Descriptive statistics, time series analysis, and comparative trend analysis using R statistical computing environment.

TipAbout This Report

This report utilizes the Global Cybersecurity Threats Dataset (2015-2024) that provides extensive data on cyberattacks, malware types, targeted industries, and affected countries. It is designed for threat intelligence analysis, cybersecurity trend forecasting, and machine learning model development to enhance global digital security.

This report was developed using R Quarto for reproducible analytics. All visualizations were created using the R ggplot2 and plotly packages.