A recent report published by the Kaspersky Response and Detection Team has shown a 300 per cent rise in espionage-related cyber-attacks in Pakistan in the first quarter of the year in comparison to the same period in 2023.

The findings underscore a concerning trend in cyber warfare, with attacks involving direct human involvement exceeding two per day in 2023, reported ARY News.

The report showed that there was a surge in cyber attacks across various sectors including finance, IT, government, and industrial fields.

The public sector recorded a 22.9 percent increase in attacks, followed by IT companies with 15.4 percent, and financial and industrial sectors reporting 14.9 percent and 11.8 percent increases, respectively, reported ARY News.

While malware attacks witnessed a slight decrease in 2023, the threat landscape in Pakistan remained mixed during the first quarters of 2023 and 2024, the news channel reported.

Backdoor attacks saw a slight uptick in 2024, indicating persistent vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure. Notably, spyware attacks surged by a remarkable 300 percent in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, raising concerns over espionage and data breaches.

Hafeez Rehman, Kaspersky’s technical group manager, told ARY News that the detection of a small number of high-severity incidents alongside an increase in medium and low-severity incidents.

He warned that targeted attacks are becoming more sophisticated and perilous.

To bolster protection against severe attacks, Rehman suggested implementation of effective automated cybersecurity solutions.