Sunday, May 5, 2013

Increase in cyberespionage recorded in 2012, Symantec

Symantec's 'Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18 (ISTR)' has said that there has been an increase in cyberespionage, with a global average number of targeted attacks per day in 2012 being 116, compared with 82 in 2011 and 77 in 2010, recording a 42% increase in targeted attacks. 

The report said that targeted attacks such as Disttrack in 2012 are commonly used for the purposes of industrial espionage to gain access to the confidential information or intellectual property on a compromised computer system or network. Worldwide, the targets for attack in 2012 were knowledge workers who create the intellectual property that attackers want (27% of all targets in 2012) and those in sales (24% in 2012). 
The presence of a large number of knowledge workers makes India, a potential target for attackers, with IT services featuring in the top list of industries targeted for spam, phishing and viruses. In fact, India was home to 16% of viruses and globally, it ranked second for virus prevalence, just behind the United States. India also ranked third for overall malicious code. 

Meanwhile, Symantec's recent mobility surveys revealed that 68% Indians are addicted to their mobile devices and 72% of Indian businesses faced mobility incidents due to malware infections, spam incidents, exposures of information, breach of information due to lost/stolen devices and phishing/social engineering instances. "The focus on exploiting mobile devices will only grow with the increasing dependence on mobile devices for everything from simple email to critical apps and even mobile payments. In fact,Symantec predicts that 2013 will be a watershed year for mobile malware," the survey said.

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