Nine out of 10 organisations experienced a cyber attack at least once in the past year, while 9% were hit with targeted attacks, a new Kaspersky survey found.
The extensive use of digital devices in business has been cited as the main factor responsible for a rise in cyber espionage, which also enabled malware to steal corporate data, the report said.
Kaspersky Lab’s principal security researcher Vitaly Kamluk said that mass distribution of malicious programmes can affect any company.
"Cyber criminals are continuously improving their malware, using unconventional approaches and solutions, from so-called encryptors and shredders that spread like the plague in a corporate environment, to an army of zombies that devours every available resource on web servers and data transfer networks," Kamluk said.
"In 2013 we also fixed first case of targeting supply chains – not being able to reach big organisations, cyber criminals get their ‘weak point’, compromising contractors, as in the Icefog attacks."
During the year, spyware-led attacks associated with several governments were exposed, while it was also found that the majority of cyber criminal activities were targeted at pinching data; attacks on contractors were detected, rather than reaching big businesses, and cyber private army carried out cyber espionage on demand.
Outsourced cybercriminal forces mainly targeted information, while other sabotage attacks used malicious codes to clean data or block infrastructure operations, the security firm said.
In addition, particular Trojans were aimed at stealing currency via online banking systems, while cyber criminals were also able to compromise corporate websites and redirect users to malicious resources.
