With the advancements in technology, phishing attacks have only increased, proving it extremely beneficial for cyber-criminals. According to the RSA report, U.S. remained the most targeted country in July with 63% of phishing volume.
On the same lines, The State of Network Security survey, sponsored by HP TippingPoint revealed that 69 percent of IT professionals experience phishing attacks at least once a week. A sample of 205 IT professionals across the United States was interviewed via Ipsos’s American online panel.
In addition, the survey found that 7 out of 10 attacks generated within the network perimeter stem from a malware-infected host. Attacks taking place through a malware-infected host highlights the significance of taking a layered approach to security that will help in efficiently blocking suspicious communications at every point on the network. “Organizations are increasingly challenged to protect their networks from advanced targeted attacks, in fact, it is likely that most environments have already been breached with systems infected by malware,” said Frank Mong, vice president, Solutions, Enterprise Security Products, HP.
The survey says that these phishing attacks are created to gain personal information of the customer, most often as the type of data attacked, followed by financial information. According to Frank Mong, “It’s important that IT professionals understand how attackers are trying to break through the network, and have confidence in their ability to mitigate attacks when every second matters.”
The Ipsos Observer online survey also yielded the following findings:
- 85 percent of IT professionals surveyed said illegal file sharing and use of non-work-related applications are the reason; whereas 63 percent are concerned with employees visiting adult-only websites on the corporate network.
- Nearly 6 out of 10 attacks originate from malicious communication with the command and control site, and more than 5 out of 10 attacks takes advantage of software vulnerability.
- Among the organizations surveyed, China is stated most often as a country of origin for external network attacks, followed by Russia and the United States.
- Roughly 7 out of 10 claim that social media is a type of abuse occurring on their corporate network.
- 67 percent of IT professionals surveyed listed customer data as the most likely to be attacked, followed by the company’s financial information (63 percent).
- As companies look to adopt software-defined networking (SDN), 54 percent indicated network manageability as a top concern, while 44 percent are concerned with an attacker compromising the SDN controller.
Read the complete report here: https://bit.ly/1nORwoK
