Moscow-based cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab has revealed that cyber attacks on the corporate sector have doubled in 2014, with targeted attacks and malicious campaigns leading the way.
Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team has reported on seven advanced persistent cyber-attack campaigns (APTs) in the past year. Between them, these accounted for more than 4,400 corporate sector targets in at least 55 countries worldwide; more than double the 1,800 targeted corporate attacks discovered in 2013.
Targeted attacks and malicious campaigns stood out amongst a range of security incidents, particularly in terms of their scale and impact across both government and business, PC World reported.
In 2014, organisations in at least 20 critical sectors were hit by advanced threat actors, which included major public organisations, also including government and diplomatic offices, with further attacks on sensitive financial and industrial segments across the private sector, including attacks on media organisations.
Kaspersky Lab chief security expert, Alex Gostev, said that the targeted operations could mean disaster for the victim, resulting in leaks to sensitive information such as intellectual property, compromised corporate networks, interrupted business processes, and the wiping of data.
Gostev said that there are tens of scenarios that all end up with the same impact, which is the loss of influence, reputation and money.
2014 also saw a number of fraud campaigns that resulted in losses totaling millions of dollars, the report added.
