Cyveillance: cyber crime more sophisticted
Cyveillance, a world leader in cyber intelligence, today announced that online criminals are garnering greater success with increased technical sophistication affecting a wider range of industries
With greater diversity and the use of targeted attacks, phishing remains one of the top threats on the Internet according to Cyveillance's "2H 2009 Cyber Intelligence Report," which was issued today.
"Cyber criminals are focusing their efforts on developing more sophisticated and targeted attacks rather than using a far reaching blanket approach, in order to reap greater financial rewards," said Panos Anastassiadis, chief operating officer of Cyveillance. "From emails to social networks, online criminals have increasingly more information at their disposal and a growing array of attack vectors to appear credible and go undetected. Organizations must be more vigilant in proactively protecting themselves and cannot rely solely on traditional security measures to keep their infrastructure and sensitive information safe."
While some research indicates that the volume of phishing emails has been decreasing, it is important to note that these attacks are targeting more varied industries with the intent on generating greater financial success. While banks and credit unions continue to be the top targets of phishers, governments and the technology and energy industries are now seeing growing numbers of attacks.
Cyveillance determined that during the second half of 2009, 399 brands were first-time targets of phishing attacks, nearly double the amount of first-time targets than in the first half of the year. Averaging over 36,000 confirmed, unique attacks per month in the same period of 2009, phishing attacks continue to succeed despite advances made in consumer education and added protections implemented by security departments within the targeted organizations.
