In 2018, hackers focused more and more on taking over connected gadgets of various kinds, the so-called Internet of Things or the smart home. Statistics from Sonicwall show a 217 percent increase over 2017, with a total of 32.7 million detected attacks, Bleeping Computer reports.
Sonicwall estimates that next year there will be 31 billion connected devices, and the vast majority have some type of security flaw that can be exploited to take them over and create a botnet.
August was the month with the lowest number of attacks, staying roughly flat at around 800,000 detected attacks, while July and October had extremely high numbers in 2018 and all other months significantly higher.
On the other hand, the number of phishing attacks has decreased and the hackers have started to target individuals instead of mass mailings to random users as before.