Most IT managers expect to be hit by a cyber attack in the next six months, with Anonymous seen as the greatest threat ahead of cyber criminals and competitors, according to a new survey.
The survey, by advanced threat protection (ATP) vendor Bit9, found that 54% of UK IT managers said they expected a cyber-attack in the next six months. Most (59%) expect that attack to be led by Anonymous or other hacktivism groups.
IT managers also believe their competitors are more of a risk than disgruntled employees or even cyber criminals. Just over one-third (35%) of those quizzed said that they fear an attack by a competitor, ahead of disgruntled employees (31%) and cyber criminals (23%).
Company file servers and databases, which contain a huge amount of valuable IP and customer information, are seen as the most vulnerable to attack with personal customer information (60%) and customer financial information (50%) being rated the most valuable data a company owns.
The survey revealed an interesting stat about which attack vectors IT managers fear the most. Despite all the hype over bring your own device (BYOD) and the proliferation of mobile devices in the workplace, just 15% of respondents said they were worried about malicious USBs and devices.
Another much-hyped method of attack, the distributed denial of service (DDoS), was rated even lower, at just 14%.
Top of the list was traditional malware such as Trojans, rootkits, worms and viruses (36%), followed by malicious websites (16%) and spear phishing (15%).
"This survey acknowledges the very real threat that IT and security professionals are facing," says, Patrick Morley, CEO, Bit9. "We are seeing the biggest transfer of intellectual property that the world has ever seen. It’s not just traditional cyber criminals who are looking to steal financial information, but there is a steady rise in the number of organised groups such as hacktivists and nation states who are intent on breaching company security to gain access to customer information or intellectual property."
"At a time when it’s easier to steal rather than create information from scratch, it’s imperative that organisations have appropriate systems in place to detect and protect against the rise in targeted and personalised attacks," he added.
The survey quizzed 1,020 IT managers in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
Bit9 actaully began life as an application whitelisting vendor, before switching its attention to the APT space. The company has recently expanded its European presence with new appointments and an increase in channel partners. The firm wants to triple EMEA sales year-on-year.
The company first pushed into Europe back in 2008 when it opened its first UK office. CBR spoke to CEO Patrick Morley at the time. You can read the full interview here.
Anonymous recently hit the Formula 1 website in a protest against the recent Bahrain Grand Prix. It also struck the CIA’s website for the second time as well as launched a continued attack on Chinese government websites. Those attacks were not long after CBR revealed that Amichai Shulman, co-founder and CTO of security firm Imperva, believes Anonymous should target the Chinese government if it really believes in freedom of speech.
Imperva detailed the anatomy of an Anonymous hacking attack in this infographic.
CBR recently took an in-depth look at the rise of hacktivism and what it means for businesses.
