2012-09-01
Abstract
Security firm reports an almost 400% increase in targeted attacks against companies in the last year.
Copyright © 2012 Virus Bulletin
FireEye reports that there has been an almost 400% rise in targeted attacks against companies over the last year. In its Advanced Threat Report, the company reveals that from the first half of 2011 to the first half of 2012, it has seen a 392% increase in infections per company by what it terms ‘advanced threats’ – threats that have not been seen before, and which bypass traditional signature-based security defences to infect targeted systems.
Meanwhile, a study sponsored by cyber-attack intelligence and response firm CounterTack, suggested that businesses are unprepared for targeted attacks. Almost half of the respondents said that their organizations had been attacked within the past year, with one-third of those saying that they lacked confidence in their organizations’ readiness and ability to defend against further attacks. Respondents’ confidence in their ability to discover in-progress attacks quickly enough to mitigate damage was also low.
At VB2012 later this month, Martin Lee will present findings which suggest that it may be possible to identify certain risk factors associated with individuals subjected to targeted attacks, and to then use those factors to help identify those at risk of future attacks. (VB2012 takes place 26–28 September 2012 in Dallas, TX, USA – the full details are available at http://www.virusbtn.com/conference/vb2012.)
