internet security tHreAt rePOrt GOVernMent 2013

p. 14
Symantec Corporation
Internet Security Threat Report 2013 :: Volume 18
TaRgETEd aTTaCkS, haCkTIVISM, aNd daTa bREaChES
Introduction
“Just as nuclear was the strategic warfare of the industrial
era, cyberwarfare has become the strategic war of the
information era,” says U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. 4
Cyberespionage and cybersabotage are already a reality.
Outside the realm of states and their proxies, corporate spies
are using increasingly advanced techniques to steal company
secrets or customer data for profit. Hactivists with political and
antibusiness agendas are also busy.
The string of media revelations about security breaches this
year suggests that the business world is just as vulnerable to
attack as ever.
data
Targeted attacks Per day in 2012
Source: Symantec
250
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
50
25
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
We witnessed one large attack in April against a single client that
more than doubled the number of attacks per day for that month;
and while events like this are extremely rare, we have not included
it in this calculation in order to portray a more realistic outlook. This
incident would have skewed the global annual average number of
attacks per day from 116 to 143.
JUL
AUG
SEP
at a glance
• Targeted attack global average per day: 116.
• Increasing levels of industrial espionage and data theft.
• More insidious targeted attacks, with new “watering hole”
attacks and sophisticated social engineering.
• Fewer big data breaches, but the median number of identities
stolen per breach has increased by 3.5 times.
OCT
NOV
DEC
This client was a large banking organization, who had not previously
been a Symantec customer, and approached Symantec for help to
remove an existing infection. The infection was removed; however,
a large wave of targeted attacks followed as the attackers sought to
regain access, ultimately failing.