In 2025, North America accounted for nearly one-third of all cyberattack incidents, marking it as the most targeted region worldwide. IBM's 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index highlights a significant 44% increase in attacks exploiting weaknesses in public-facing applications, severely affecting Canadian organizations.
The report identifies inadequate authentication controls and the rise of AI technologies in vulnerability detection as key factors contributing to this trend. Credential harvesting remains the most common impact in North America, with infostealer malware compromising over 300,000 ChatGPT credentials globally last year, underscoring the vulnerabilities associated with AI tool deployment.
Chris Sicard, Security Leader at IBM Canada, emphasized the urgent need for Canadian firms to modernize their security measures in response to the evolving threat landscape. The manufacturing sector, which represented 27.7% of global incidents, along with finance and insurance, which faced 27% of attacks, illustrates the critical nature of these challenges amid Canada’s advanced manufacturing environment.