BT spots 2,000 potential attacks on its network a second

IPSWICH, England (Reuters) - Britain's BT said it was spotting 2,000 signals of potential cyber-attacks across its network every second, as criminals were increasingly using disposable "bots" to try to evade existing blocking and security measures.

The telecoms group said on Thursday that digital surveillance activity by hackers using malicious scanning "bots" was 1,200% higher in July compared to the same month the previous year. BT also said that hackers were targeting the retail, education and hospitality industries as well as the defence and financial services sectors, their traditional hunting grounds. "Our data shows that every 90 seconds hackers are checking connected devices to find a way in," BT's managing director of security Tris Morgan said.

BT released the data at its Secure Tomorrow cybersecurity event, where it showed its quantum secure communications and AI cyber defence capabilities.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle, editing by Sarah Young)