Russia Has the Fastest Hackers

In about the time it takes to bake a tray of cookies, watch a show on Netflix, or be the shortest reigning King of France, an average Russian hacker can infiltrate a computer network. The average breakout time for Russian hackers was about 18 minutes. Chinese-affiliated hacking groups clocked in an average breakout time of about 4 hours, while North Korean hackers were able to gain access to a network in just under two and a half hours.

This metric, termed breakout time, measures how long it takes hackers to get into a network and to expand their access or jump to other machines after the initial breach. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, collected over 30,000 attempted breaches in 2018 from their clients for this report. The data include companies in every major industry, including organizations in the private and public sector across 176 countries.

While cybersecurity is becoming increasingly more important for governments and companies, often cited as a top concern for C-level executives, there continues to be a shortage of cybersecurity workers. A report from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget found that about three-quarters of all federal agencies need urgent digital defence improvement.