Cyber attacks on Swiss companies on the decline
In October, attacks on Swiss companies fell by 29%. In Europe, however, the cybersecurity service provider Check Point saw an increase of four percent. And: AI is increasingly becoming a compliance risk for companies.
For once, there is some good news from the cybersecurity front. According to the Global Threat Intelligence Report from Check Point, a provider of cyber security solutions, cyber attacks declined in October, at least in Switzerland. However, the report shows that companies worldwide were exposed to an average of 1,938 cyber attacks per week last month. This represents a two percent increase on September and a five percent increase on October 2024, reflecting a continued escalation in global cyber threats. The security researchers attribute this development to the spread of ransomware and risks associated with generative AI (GenAI).
Management report for Switzerland
In Switzerland, the number of incidents fell by 29% compared to the same period last year, with 1,025 attacks per organization. In the DACH region, the number fell by 9% to 1,238 attacks. The following table shows the average number of weekly attacks per organization by country and region in October 2025, including a comparison with the previous year:
Region | Average weekly attacks | Change compared to the same period last year |
Germany | 1’140 | -5% |
Switzerland | 1’025 | -29% |
Austria | 1’548 | +6% |
DACH | 1’238 | -9% |
Europe | 1’616 | +4% |
North America | 1’464 | +18% |
Latin America | 2’966 | +16% |
Africa | 2’782 | -15% |
Asia-Oceania | 2’703 | -8% |
Global | 1’938 | +5% |
(Source: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.).
In Switzerland, the following sectors were most affected by cyber attacks:
- Energy & Utilities
- Consumer Goods & Services
- State institutions
- Telecommunications
- Healthcare & Medical
New risks for data disclosure in companies due to generative AI
With the rapid proliferation of Generative AI (GenAI) tools in organizations, Check Point Research has identified an increasing threat to sensitive data. In October, one in 44 GenAI requests from corporate networks posed a high risk of data leakage, affecting 87 percent of organizations that regularly use GenAI. A further 19 percent of requests contained potentially sensitive information such as internal communications, customer data or proprietary code, highlighting the need for AI governance and data protection measures.
These risks are associated with an eight percent increase in average daily usage by corporate users. It is worth noting that the exposure of source code and credentials has relatively increased compared to other data types such as personal data and financial information. While some of the usage is via managed tools, organizations still average 11 different GenAI tools per month, most of which are likely to go unnoticed.
Most attacked sectors globally
The education sector remained the most affected target worldwide with an average of 4,470 attacks per week and organization (+5% year-on-year). This was followed by the telecommunications industry with 2,583 attacks per week (+2% year-on-year), while government institutions were subject to 2,550 attacks per week (-2% year-on-year). These developments reflect the continued targeting of critical services and data-rich environments. Also noteworthy is the large year-on-year increase of 40% in the hospitality industry. CPR attributes this to the approaching Christmas period, which could be the reason why the sector has climbed from 8th to 5th most attacked industry this month.
From a regional perspective, Latin America recorded the highest attack volume with an average of 2,966 attacks per organization per week (+16% year-on-year), followed by Africa with 2,782 attacks (-15%) and APAC with 2,703 attacks (-8%). Europe recorded a moderate increase of 4 percent to 1,616 attacks, while North America saw the strongest growth of 18 percent year-on-year to 1,464 incidents. According to CPR, this is partly due to the increasing threat of ransomware.
Ransomware threat situation: 48 percent increase in activity compared to the previous year
Ransomware remained one of the most damaging cyber threats with 801 publicly reported incidents worldwide in October, an increase of 48 percent year-on-year. North America accounted for 62 percent of all reported cases, followed by Europe (19 percent; Figure 3). In a country comparison, the United States alone accounted for 57 percent of global incidents, followed by Canada (5 percent) and France (4 percent).
By industry, business services (12 percent), consumer goods and services (10.5 percent) and industrial manufacturing (10.4 percent) were the most affected. The leading ransomware groups in October were Qilin (22.7 percent), Akira (8.7 percent) and Sinobi (7.8 percent), which together were responsible for almost 40 percent of reported attacks.
No all-clear
Even though the number of cyber attacks in Switzerland has fallen, the situation cannot be said to have eased. Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research, comments on the results as follows: «The data for October shows that, in addition to the rising total number of attacks, we should be concerned about the increase in successful ransomware attacks. Furthermore, the risks of data exposure through generative AI and other means threaten to provide hackers with additional tools for future attacks. This development poses new challenges for defenders. The only effective approach is prevention, supported by real-time AI and pre-emptive threat intelligence to block attacks before they cause damage.»
Source: Check Point
