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Cyber espionage the order of the day

Attacks on the supply chain mark a change in tactic for criminals looking for sensitive information.

By Johan Barnard, Developer, Upstream Advertising
Johannesburg, 08 Jul 2013

No look at the IT risk landscape is complete without a review of the annual'Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR)'.The 2013 edition was released in May and revealed that targeted attacks last year grew an astonishing 42% over the previous year. Symantec identified these attacks as "targeted cyber espionage attacks" aimed at the manufacturing sector as well as small businesses, which suffered 31% of these attacks.

"This year's ISTR shows that cyber criminals aren't slowing down, and they continue to devise new ways to steal information from organisations of all sizes," says Gordon Love, Symantec's regional director for Africa. "The sophistication of attacks, coupled with today's IT complexities such as virtualisation, mobility and cloud, require organisations to remain proactive and use 'defence-in-depth' security measures to stay ahead of attacks."

The report says the manufacturing sector has toppled governments as the leading industry targeted by cyber criminals. This shift is ascribed to broadening supply chains in which contractors or subcontractors are targeted, as vital information about their customers could be easier to access at these smaller (and less well protected) organisations.

This widening of the line of attack is also evident in the focus shifting from executives to employees further down the organisation, who may be more susceptible to phishing attacks, for instance.

Naturally, mobile devices are becoming as vulnerable to attack because they're ubiquitous. Symantec reported that mobile malware increased 58% last year, with nearly a third of all mobile threats being attempts to steal information like e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

"While Apple's iOS had the most documented vulnerabilities, it only had one threat discovered during the same period. Android, by contrast, had fewer vulnerabilities, but more threats than any other mobile operating system. Android's market share, its open platform and the multiple distribution methods available to distribute malicious applications, make it the go-to platform for attackers," Symantec said in a release.

First published in the July 2013 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.

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