A 62% increase in the number of data breaches was recorded in 2013, compared to 2012, according to Symantec's new annual Internet Security Threat Report, which was released today in Athens.
After waiting in cyber darkness for the first ten months, cybercriminals finally launched the most damaging series of mega-cyberattacks (mega-breaches) in history in the last two months of last year.
“A mega breach can be worth as much as 50 smaller attacks,” said Christos Ventouris, cybersecurity specialist for Southeast Europe at Symantec. “While the level of attacks continues to improve, what was surprising in the past year was that attackers were now more patient, waiting to strike when their reward would be bigger and better.”.
The report notes that cybercrime remains a real and damaging threat to consumers and businesses, as users' personal information, from credit card numbers and medical records to passwords and bank account details, is increasingly being compromised.
Each of the mega-data breaches in 2013, according to Symantec, resulted in the loss of tens of millions of data files, far more than in 2012, when there was only one data breach of such magnitude.
Smaller, but deliberately targeted attacks increased by 91% in 2013 and lasted on average three times longer than in 2012. Administrative secretaries and public relations workers were the two professions that cybercriminals mainly focused on and used as a "stepping stone" to their higher-level targets, such as business executives and other personalities.
Moreover, more than one in three (38%) mobile device users have experienced a malicious cyber-attack in the last year. On the other hand, the global volume of unwanted and malicious email (spam) has fallen to 66% of all emails sent (i.e. two in every eight legitimate websites contain a critical security vulnerability).
Greece
In 2013, Greece showed a slight downward trend in terms of its overall image in the field of Internet Security Threat, reaching 43rd place in the global ranking, while in 2012 it was in 42nd place.
More specifically, in individual sectors, Greece was ranked 30th worldwide last year in terms of unwanted and malicious email (spam) with a percentage of 0.7% of total "spam" messages internationally, while in 2012 Greece was in 29th place.
In malicious code activity, in 2013 the country was ranked 58th in the global ranking (with a percentage of 0.2% of the total) while in 2014 it was in 54th place.
In hosting malicious websites (phishing hosts), Greece was ranked 63rd worldwide (up from 60th in 2012), while malware via e-mail averaged approximately one in 719 (compared to one in 392, which is the global average).
Source: newsit.gr
