Huntress Survey: 54% of U.S. Organizations Reported Malware in the Past Year

Summary

A Huntress survey of 542 U.S. IT professionals found malware was the most commonly reported cybercrime in respondents’ organizations, while respondents cited AI-powered social engineering as a growing concern. The article also shares risk-reduction advice.

Key points

The survey was conducted May 27–28, 2025, by Centiment Audience for Huntress; results were unweighted, with an estimated margin of error of about +/-3% at 95% confidence.
Among respondents, 54% reported malware in their organization in the past year, followed by phishing at 44% and business email compromise at 36%.
Organized criminal groups were the most commonly perceived top threat actor (26%); respondents most often suspected financial gain as the main cybercrime motivation (27%), followed by data theft (23%).
More than 26% estimated annual cybercrime losses of $100,000–$500,000, while 22% said their organization lacked cyber insurance.
AI-powered social engineering was the most commonly cited unanticipated risk (38%); 42% said AI-powered attacks would be the biggest cybercrime game-changer over the next five years.
Huntress says threat actors have increasingly shifted ransomware strategies toward data theft and extortion over encryption, and use remote monitoring and management tools for access, lateral movement, and persistence.
Recommended measures include multifactor authentication, timely software updates, endpoint detection and response, employee security training, and incident response planning.

Article Details

Publisher: Huntress
Report Period: Survey conducted 2025-05-27 to 2025-05-28; article published 2025-07-17. Survey questions generally covered the previous 12 months where specified.
Scope: Cybercrime trends, reported organizational experiences and perceptions, and cybersecurity recommendations; survey of US IT professionals.
Sample Size: 542 US IT professionals aged 18+; data unweighted, with an approximately ±3% margin of error at 95% confidence.
Key Statistics: 54% of survey respondents said their organization experienced a malware infection in the previous 12 months.
44% said their organization experienced phishing, including spear phishing and whaling, in the previous 12 months.
26% rated organized cybercriminal groups as the threat actor posing the greatest risk to their organization.
27% thought threat actors mainly target companies for financial gain.
Huntress's 2025 Cyber Insurance Trends Report found that 22% of American organizations lacked cyber insurance.
Recommendations: Use endpoint detection and response tools to detect, investigate, and respond to threats.
Provide regular employee security awareness training, including guidance on recognizing phishing and social engineering.
Regularly patch and update operating systems, applications, and security software.
Implement multi-factor authentication for accounts, especially those with privileged access.
Develop an incident response plan covering detection, response, recovery, and communications.

Threat Actors

BlueNoroffNamed in the article's reference to a North Korean attack involving AI-generated deepfakes.

Vendors

Huntress“As we highlighted in the Huntress 2025 Cyber Threat Report, over the last year, threat actors have stepped up their game, shifting their ransomware strategies to data theft and extortion over encryption and relying on

Industries

Education“Cybercriminals have targeted various industries like the healthcare, education, and government sectors.Government“Cybercriminals have targeted various industries like the healthcare, education, and government sectors.Healthcare“Cybercriminals have targeted various industries like the healthcare, education, and government sectors.