14 DAY TRIAL // Symantec has released its Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18. The study provides some interesting figures about targeted attacks, vulnerabilities, data breaches, spam, malware, mobile malware, and botnets.
According to the report, in 2012 the number of targeted attacks increased by 42%. The manufacturing sector and small businesses have been increasingly targeted by cybercriminals.
The security firm explains that small companies are an attractive target because they can be used by the attackers to hit larger organizations. In fact, small firms have been the victims of 31% of all targeted attacks.
For instance, many web-based attacks – the numbers of which increased by 30% last year – originated from the compromised websites of small companies.
Small businesses might wrongly believe they’re immune to cyberattacks, and in many cases they fail to secure their systems. Cybercriminals are aware of this, so they’ve started abusing their websites for all sorts of operations, including watering hole attacks such as the ones used to compromise Facebook and Apple.
Interestingly, cybercriminals have started focusing their efforts on the supply chain. They’ve come to realize that it’s easier to go after a contractor or a subcontractor to gain access to the valuable information of a larger firm.
It’s also worth noting that, last year, the most targeted groups of individuals were knowledge workers with access to intellectual property (27%) and people working in sales (24%).
“This year’s ISTR shows that cybercriminals aren’t slowing down, and they continue to devise new ways to steal information from organizations of all sizes,” said Stephen Trilling, chief technology officer, Symantec.
“The sophistication of attacks coupled with today’s IT complexities, such as virtualization, mobility and cloud, require organizations to remain proactive and use ‘defense in depth’ security measures to stay ahead of attacks.”
The complete Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18, is available here.