Critical Infrastructure Twice as Likely to be Targeted by Cybercriminals
February 13, 2010
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Critical infrastructure such as energy, pharmaceutical and government assets are more than twice as likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than other organizations, says a report by ScanSafe. The report is based on an analysis of more than a trillion Web requests processed in 2009 by the ScanSafe Threat Center on behalf of the company's corporate customers in more than 100 countries.
The report outlines the verticals most at risk as:
- Energy & Oil with a 356% greater rate of direct encounters with data theft trojans;
- Pharmaceutical & Chemical with a 322% greater rate;
- Government with a 252% greater rate;
- Banking & Finance with a 204% greater rate.
In addition, the report reveals that Web-delivered malware more than doubled through the course of the year. At the start of 2009, the average enterprise experienced 8 Web malware encounters each day. By the end of 2009, the rate of exposure had more than doubled to 19 encounters per day. Twenty-three percent of those encounters were with zero day malware undetectable by signature-based methodologies and nineteen percent were direct encounters with data theft trojans.
Other key findings include:
- Malware is the new Internet business of choice
- The business structure behind cybercrime today is not unlike the business structure behind any other global economy
- Attackers play many roles in this commercial world including 'The Sole Proprietor', 'The Middleman', 'The Developer', and 'The Buyer'.
To obtain a full copy of the ScanSafe Annual Global Threat Report, please visit www.scansafe.com
