- Apr 5, 2014
- 6,014
Australia has been ranked as one of the top ten targets globally for social media scams and targeted attacks. Why – because we pay!
Symantec has today released their 81 page, annual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Vol. 21that reveals an organisational shift by cybercriminals - they are establishing professional businesses and adopting corporate best practices in order to increase the efficiency of their attacks against enterprises and consumers. This new class of professional cybercriminal spans the ecosystem of attackers, extends the reach of enterprise and consumer threats, and fuels the growth of online crime.
The report is too comprehensive to be covered fully here – so download a free copy. Symantec has one of the most comprehensive global sources of Internet threat data through its Symantec Global Intelligence Network - made up of more than 63.8 million attack sensors in 157 countries and records thousands of events per second.
It covers:
Symantec discovered more than 430 million new unique pieces of malware - up 36% from the year before. What is most remarkable is that these numbers no longer surprise us - cybercrime has become a part of our daily lives. Attacks against businesses and nations hit the headlines with such regularity that we’ve become numb to the sheer volume and acceleration of cyber threats.
Following are six key findings and trends from 2015.
Symantec has today released their 81 page, annual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Vol. 21that reveals an organisational shift by cybercriminals - they are establishing professional businesses and adopting corporate best practices in order to increase the efficiency of their attacks against enterprises and consumers. This new class of professional cybercriminal spans the ecosystem of attackers, extends the reach of enterprise and consumer threats, and fuels the growth of online crime.
The report is too comprehensive to be covered fully here – so download a free copy. Symantec has one of the most comprehensive global sources of Internet threat data through its Symantec Global Intelligence Network - made up of more than 63.8 million attack sensors in 157 countries and records thousands of events per second.
It covers:
- Mobile Devices and the Internet of Things
- Web threats
- Social media, scams and email threats
- Targeted attacks
- Data breaches and privacy
- Cloud and infrastructure
Symantec discovered more than 430 million new unique pieces of malware - up 36% from the year before. What is most remarkable is that these numbers no longer surprise us - cybercrime has become a part of our daily lives. Attacks against businesses and nations hit the headlines with such regularity that we’ve become numb to the sheer volume and acceleration of cyber threats.
Following are six key findings and trends from 2015.
- 54 new zero-day vulnerabilities were discovered – one than one each week – up 125%. What this means is that cybercriminals can use and throw away these vulnerabilities knowing there are more to use. Adobe Flash remained the leading vulnerability
- Over 500,000,000 personal records were stolen through amongst many – nine mega breaches of more than 10 million records. Companies were hacked so regularly that transparency of breaches suffered. While numerous data sharing initiatives are underway in the security industry, helping all of us improve our security products and postures, some of this data is getting harder to collect.
- Spear-phishing campaigns were up 55%. A government organization or a financial company was most likely to be targeted at least three more times throughout the year. Large businesses saw an average of 3.6 successful attacks each. And this moved down into small business too – no business is without risk.
- Ransomware increased 35%. It found new targets and moved beyond its focus on PCs to smart phones, Mac, and Linux systems. Symantec even demonstrated proof-of-concept attacks against smart watches and televisions in 2015.
- Fake technical calls endemic. Fake technical support scams have evolved from cold-calling unsuspecting victims to the attacker fooling victims into calling them directly. Attackers trick people with pop-ups that alert them to a serious error or problem, steering the victim to an toll free number, where a “technical support representative” attempts to sell the victim worthless services. In 2015, Symantec blocked 100 million of these types of attacks. Cybercriminals know too much about you.
