The number of attacks through Java exploits have risen by a third between September 2012 and August 2013 to 14.1 million, the latest Kaspersky Lab study revealed.
Kaspersky’s Java Under Attack – the evolution of exploits in 2012 to 2013 report revealed that majority of attacks were detected during the second half of the study period with over 8.54 million attacks carried out from March to August 2013, up 52.7%.
Kaspersky Lab Vulnerability Research Group head Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky said that Java is a victim of its own popularity.
"Cyber criminals know they are better off focusing their efforts on finding a vulnerability in Java and then attacking millions of computers at one stroke, rather than creating multiple exploits for several less popular products and still finding that they are affecting fewer computers," Zakorzhevsky said.
According to the report, about 80% of attacked users resided in 10 countries, with the Top 3 including the USA, Russia and Germany, while the Canada, the USA, Germany and Brazil witnessed the fastest growth attacks.
About half of all attacks were triggered through the use of just six families of Java exploits.
During the one year period, each user experienced an average of 3.72 attacks, while average exposure reached 3.29 attacks per individual user during the September 2012 to February 2013.
