Global Cyberattack Severity Spikes as Manufacturing and U.S. Top Weekly Threat Rankings
Published
- Top victims: The U.S. and France recorded the most cyberattacks during the week.
- Most targeted industries: Manufacturing and healthcare faced escalating disruptions.
- Leading actor: ‘Pear’ emerged above Qilin, signaling a shift in attacker dominance.
The week of August 6–12, 2025, saw a surge in cyberattacks, with researchers analyzing 228 cyber attacks, noting an over 3.9% rise as compared to the previous week.Â
Key Weekly Cyber Impact Trends Observed
The United States was the most impacted country, with a weighted severity score of 5.20, reflecting a 3% week-on-week rise in damaging cybercrime activity. France followed closely with a score of 5.11, an increase of over 30% indicating a sudden escalation in high-impact attacks.
The Netherlands and the United Kingdom both registered scores of 4.76, signalling a heightened concentration of disruptive cyber attacks. India entered the top five, hit the most (4.71), marking a 15% week-on-week rise in attack severity.
Pear, a threat actor name not much reported, made it to the top of the worst threats. Its high impact score (5.51) suggests Pear was associated with fewer but more damaging attacks, likely causing high operational, reputational, or financial disruption to victims that week.
Based on ESIX© is an internal severity score used by HackRisk.io to rank the business impact of emerging cyber incidents, the report highlighted increased impact across multiple sectors. The survey rated cyber events not just by volume, so a small number of high-severity incidents can push a new actor straight to the top.
Qilin ranked as the second most dangerous threat actor of the week, followed by INC Ransom, Black Nevas, and Worldleaks in the top five.
World Leaks emerged in January 2025, succeeding the Hunters International ransomware operation. Rather than deploying encryption, they focus on stealing sensitive files to threaten victims with public leaks unless a ransom is paid.
Pear, which reportedly stands for ‘PURE EXTRACTION and RANSOM’, first posted a ransomware claim in June this year. They announced stealing 365 GB of data from TAS NZ Bay Limited, a New Zealand-based accounting firm.
Industries Facing the Highest Cyber Impact
Manufacturing and Healthcare led the rankings for the most impacted industries, with a surge in high-severity incidents. Professional/Scientific/Technical services followed, with attackers seeking access to valuable financial records, personal identifiers, and intellectual property.Â
Cybercriminals are abandoning yesterday’s tactics in favor of impersonation-based breaches targeting frontline employees, data-harvesting intrusions aimed at sensitive records, and exploits of unpatched systems, underlining why strong cyber hygiene and regular software updates remain essential.
Related
Get expert insights on threats, breaches, scams, and security trends — delivered every Saturday.
Most Popular
Get expert insights on threats, breaches, scams, and security trends — delivered every Saturday.
Most Popular