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cyber defences . Survey respondents reported that an exploited vulnerability was the most common root cause of ransomware attacks , 36 %, followed by compromised credentials , 29 %. Emails were the root cause of 30 %, with rounding of attacks : 18 % started with a malicious email and 13 % with phishing . 3 % began with a brute force attack and just 1 % with a download .
The media , leisure , and entertainment sector reported the highest percentage of attacks where the root cause was an exploited vulnerability , 55 %, indicating widespread security gaps in this area . Central and federal government had the highest percentage of attacks that started with compromised credentials , 41 %. This may be due to a higher rate of credential theft in this sector , a lower ability to prevent exploitation of stolen credentials , or a combination of the two . IT , technology , and telecoms reported the highest rates of email-based attacks , with over half , 51 % starting in users ’ inboxes . p
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