Cybersecurity Awareness Month: 10 things to know in 2025

Cyberattacks are on a steep rise. Over the past four years, their average weekly number has more than doubled: from 818 per organization in the second quarter of 2021 to 1,984 in the same period this year. In the last two years alone, the global average number of weekly attacks encountered by organizations grew by 58%.

At the same time, the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 points to an increasingly complex threat landscape. From geopolitical tensions to the impact of cybersecurity and AI, businesses’ vulnerabilities are growing rapidly. Adding to this is a widening skills gap impeding their efforts to step up defences. Small businesses are particularly exposed, with seven times more organizations reporting insufficient cyber resilience than in 2022.

As we approach Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, it’s clear that the first 10 months of 2025 have been defined by heightened cyber risks and significant challenges for the world’s largest organizations.

Here are 10 headline events and statistics that have shaped the year so far.