European cyber threats are growing much faster than other regions

European cyber threats are accelerating at a much faster rate than other regions, according to a new analysis from Proofpoint. The company's research indicates that organizations in Europe are experiencing a surge in email attacks, malware infections, and ransomware incidents that target industries such as hospitality, healthcare, and electronics.

Email-borne attacks are on the rise, with Proofpoint's telemetry detecting four and a half times more phishing emails in Europe compared to the rest of the world. BEC attacks, where attackers compromise a business email and assume the identity of its owner, are particularly concerning, especially for European electronics companies that receive three and a half times more such emails than the European average.

Hospitality and healthcare industries are especially targeted, with malware infections rising by 84% in healthcare organizations. Telephone-oriented attack delivery, or callback phishing, has surged by 262% year-on-year. Proofpoint's data shows that for every 100 threat emails delivered, there were 8.3 clicks in Europe, compared to just 2.0 worldwide, suggesting that European organizations are more responsive to such attacks.

AI-powered apps are creating new visibility and identity control problems for European organizations. Proofpoint observed over 188,000 AI-enabled applications connected through authentication and OAuth frameworks. These apps, while beneficial for automating workflows, also present challenges and risks, as they open up new attack surfaces.

Threat actors are targeting the mechanisms that enable connectivity, including content grants, tokens, and applications with misconfigured privileges. Open source AI technologies like Langflow and LiteLLM have become attractive targets for cybercriminals.