Know the most frequently encountered cyber threats by companies

BANGALORE, INDIA: Attacks that employ a variety of malicious programs, phishing attacks, and spam remain the cyber threats most frequently encountered by companies. At the same time, the volume of malicious attacks and spam has increased substantially in 2013, compared to 2012. These are the findings published in the Global Corporate IT Security Risks 2013 survey, conducted by B2B International in collaboration with Kaspersky Lab this past spring.

Roughly 66 per cent of the survey's respondents reported that their companies were targeted in attacks involving viruses, worms, spyware, and other types of malicious programs. In 2012, that number was lower by 8 per cent (58 per cent ). The volume of spam attacks is up considerably and noted by 61 per cent of companies, compared to 55 per cent in 2012. Phishing attacks were launched against 36 per cent of companies, which is just 1 per cent higher than in 2012. In spite of that modest increase, phishing remains in the top three most prevalent threats in external attacks against corporations.

Companies in South America were the most frequent targets of malicious attacks: 72 per cent of respondents from that region ranked viruses and spyware the number one external threats. Russian companies were also frequent targets, with 71 per cent of Russian companies reporting attacks. North America was the third most-attacked region, with 70 per cent of companies reporting attacks. Japanese companies suffered the least, with only 47 per cent of survey participants reporting any malware attacks.

Meanwhile, spam is most frequently encountered by North American and Russian companies (69 per cent and 67 per cent , respectively). The companies dealing with the least amount of spam are located in the Middle East (55 per cent ) and in Japan (42 per cent ).

Companies from North America are subjected to phishing attacks more often than in other regions (51 per cent ), followed by the Asian Pacific (46 per cent ). The companies with the lowest phishing rate are located in Russia, Japan, and South American countries (an average of 26 per cent ).

Malicious attacks are actually the number one reason behind serious leakages of confidential data - 22 per cent of companies reported that they have suffered data leakages after these types of attacks. Most often, these incidents take place among small and mid-sized companies (23 per cent ), while large companies are targeted less frequently (17 per cent ).

Data leakages are less frequently the result of phishing attacks, with an average of just 5 per cent of companies encountering these types of incidents. However, the percentage of large companies that lost data due to phishing attacks is a bit higher (6 per cent ) than the number of SMEs in the same situation (5 per cent ).

The proper protection against growing threats

The varied range of attacks launched against companies means that companies need a professional security solution capable of effectively counteracting dangerous cyber threats. Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business is a solution that protects corporate IT infrastructures. Aside from its modern antivirus technologies, it also includes components that protect against targeted attacks, phishing, and spam. Featuring regular interaction with the Kaspersky Security Network cloud service and the application of complex heuristic detection and threat blocking, Kaspersky Lab's solution will provide reliable security for the IT infrastructure of any type of company.