According to a recent cybersecurity report by Armis, geopolitical issues are affecting the cybersecurity landscape. The report found that cyberwarfare grew more widespread in 2023. The top industries exposed to attack from Chinese and Russian actors were those within manufacturing, educational services and public administration.

In manufacturing, .cn and .ru domains contributed to an average of 30% of monthly attack attempts, while attacks from these domains on educational services have risen to about 10% of total attacks. Older Windows server OS versions (2012 and earlier) are 77% more likely to experience attack attempts compared to newer Windows Server versions, according to the report.

This vulnerability is particularly evident in the server environment, with nearly a quarter of server versions facing end-of-support (EoS) scenarios. The educational services industry has a significantly higher percentage of servers (41%) with unpatched weaponized Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).

Read the full report here.