ORGANIZATIONS worldwide recorded an average of 2,803 cyberattacks per week in September, up 16 percent from August and 48 percent year on year, according to Check Point Research.
The report, released on Oct. 13, 2026, also found that Singapore organizations faced an average of 3,603 weekly attacks, a 92 percent increase year on year and the second-highest rate in Asia-Pacific.
Education was the most targeted sector globally, averaging 6,656 weekly attacks per organization, up 59 percent year on year. Telecommunications followed with 3,483 attacks, while government recorded 3,443.
Latin America had the highest regional attack volume at 3,813 weekly attacks per organization. Europe recorded the fastest annual growth, with attacks rising 61 percent, followed by North America at 50 percent.
The report also found growing risks associated with generative artificial intelligence (AI). One in every 39 enterprise AI prompts posed a high risk of sensitive data leakage, affecting 89 percent of organizations that regularly use these tools. A further 14 percent of prompts contained potentially sensitive information.
Phishing activity also increased, with one in every 91 emails, or 1.1 percent, classified as phishing in September, compared with one in every 112 emails in August. Among phishing emails, 81 percent contained links and 11 percent contained attachments.
Meanwhile, 824 ransomware attacks were reported during the month, a 53 percent increase from September 2025. Business services accounted for 31.3 percent of reported victims, followed by consumer goods and services at 15.2 percent and industrial manufacturing at 11 percent.
The Gentlemen was the most prevalent ransomware group, accounting for 13 percent of published attacks. Qilin followed with 9 percent and Akira with 5 percent.
“September’s data shows cyber risk increasing in both volume and breadth,” said Omer Dembinsky, data research manager at Check Point Research.
He said the increase in attacks, phishing activity, ransomware and sensitive-data exposure linked to AI use underscored the need for coordinated security measures.
The findings were based on Check Point Research’s global threat intelligence data for September 2026. Ira James
