Targeted attacks increase four-fold in 2011

The amount of targeted attacks has increased by four times over the process 2011.

According to Symantec's intelligence report for November, a regular of 94 targeted attacks were blocked every day in the course of the month, compared with 25 in January. Put into perspective, one in 255 emails in November contained some type of malware, but just one in 8,300 of those was a highly targeted attack. Symantec determined that overall, one in every two million emails contained a targeted attack.

It said: “With an estimated 48 billion emails in circulation every single day, a highly targeted attack of this nature accounts for a really small percentage of email traffic, but they're under no circumstances as rare as on the end of 2010.

“These attacks all have the possible to significantly impact an organisation, and inside the long term they represent a major threat against the industrial prosperity of many companies.”

Paul Wood, senior intelligence analyst at Symantec.cloud, said: “The aim of those targeted attacks is to determine persistent access to the targeted organisation's network, in lots of cases with the purpose of providing remote access to confidential data.

“Targeted attacks are designed to collect intelligence, steal confidential information or trade secrets and, relating to attacks like Stuxnet, disrupt operations and even destroy critical infrastructure.”

The report also found that the general public sector was probably the most frequently targeted industry during 2011, with approximately 20.5 targeted attacks blocked every day. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry was second-highest ranked, with 18.6 blocked every day.

Also, organisations with greater than 2,500 staff were the foremost targeted, with 36.7 attacks blocked daily. Compared, the small- to medium-sized business sector (with fewer than 250 employees) had 11.6 attacks blocked daily.