According to a report by security solutions vendor Kaspersky Lab, the number of corporate sector cyber-attacks more than doubled in 2014.
Over the last 12 months the company’s research and analysis team have reported on several large targeted attacks which affected both private and public institutions. Among these were over 4400 corporate sector targets, across 55 countries.
In addition, up to 1800 companies were targeted in fraud campaigns that resulted in losses totalling millions of dollars.
Across the world, fraudsters stole passwords, files and audio-streamed content, took screenshots, intercepted geolocation information, controlled web-cameras, and more, Kaspersky Lab said.
According to Mark Bermingham, director of global B2B marketing at Kaspersky Lab, mobile devices have also experienced a huge growth in malware and other malicious activity.
“We’ve seen mobile malware spike significantly over the last couple of years. As consumers and businesses shift to using mobile devices for a greater percentage of their daily activities, cybercriminals will place a larger emphasis on targeting these platforms” said Bermingham.
Some of the major breeches in 2014 included an attack on the clients of a large European bank which resulted in the theft of half a million euros in just one week.
There were also attacks on ATMs in Asia, Europe and Latin America in which millions of dollars were stolen worldwide, without the attackers needing access to credit cards.
This is a trend which Kaspersky expects to continue into 2015. They predict that there will be a further evolution of ATM attacks, in which advanced persistent techniques are used to hack into the “brain” of the ATMs and manipulate them in real time.
Looking forward, Kaspersky warns that the Internet of Things is also likely to become a major target in the future. “As more and more of these connected devices become available, we expect to see a wider discussion about security and privacy, especially among businesses in this space” the company said.
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