- Fortinet's 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report highlights a 16.7% increase in automated scanning attacks, with 36,000 scans per second in 2024.
- Stolen credential records surged dramatically by 500%, with 1.7 billion records shared on underground forums.
- The United States experienced the highest percentage of cyberattacks, accounting for 61% of all attacks globally.
Fortinet (FTNT, Financial) has unveiled its 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report, which showcases a significant rise in automated cyberattacks and the use of artificial intelligence by threat actors. The report reveals a dramatic 16.7% year-over-year increase in global active scanning in 2024, reaching a remarkable rate of 36,000 scans per second, indicating a colossal gathering of intelligence on exposed digital infrastructure worldwide.
Key findings from the report include a 39% increase in new vulnerabilities with over 40,000 entries added to the National Vulnerability Database. The darknet marketplace has witnessed a substantial surge in exploit kits, with credentials, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access, admin panels, and web shells being actively traded.
Among the alarming statistics, stolen credential records escalated by 500%, with 1.7 billion records disseminated across underground forums. This increase in compromised records reflects a broader trend of cybercrime scaling rapidly, propelled by AI technologies such as FraudGPT and BlackmailerV3 that enhance phishing realism and evade conventional security controls.
The report also highlights the sectors most targeted by cybercriminals in 2024, with the manufacturing sector leading at 17%, followed by business services (11%), construction (9%), and retail (9%). Geographically, the United States bore the brunt of these attacks, absorbing 61%, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada at 6% and 5%, respectively.
The findings underscore the escalating risks in cloud and IoT security as attackers increasingly exploit weaknesses such as open storage buckets and over-permissioned identities. In 70% of incidents, attackers gained access through logins from unfamiliar geographies, emphasizing the importance of identity monitoring in bolstering cloud security defenses.
Fortinet's report not only underscores the growing sophistication of cyber threats but also provides actionable insights for CISOs and security teams to enhance their defense strategies, leveraging AI and continuous threat exposure management to stay ahead of evolving cyber risks.
