Targeted cyber attacks growing among businesses

PUNE: Symantec Corp's 'Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18 (ISTR)' recently revealed that India has seen a 280% increase in bot infections that is continuing to spread to a larger number of emerging cities here. With the prevalence of such infections, it is not surprising that the country accounts for nearly 15% of global bot-net spam, responsible for disseminating an estimated 280 million spam messages per day worldwide.
In addition, the report highlights a 42% surge during 2012 in global targeted attacks, as compared to the prior year. Designed to steal intellectual property, these targeted cyber espionage attacks are increasingly hitting small businesses, which are the target of 31% of these attacks across the world. Small businesses are attractive targets and a stepping stone to ultimately reaching larger companies.