Cyber Attacks Occurring More Frequently and With Greater Sophistication

The frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks continues to rise globally according to research data from the Global Threat Intelligence Center (GTIC) 2017 Q2 Threat Intelligence Report released by NTT Security, an NTT Group company.

The report, based on events identified across the NTT Security global client base during the second quarter of 2017, identifies trending threats and enables the company to implement IT security assessment and incident response tactics to stay ahead of hackers, and maintain the best protection for their clientele.

Of the extensive information included in the report, four findings are of extreme interest and concern:

* Cyber attacks were up 24 percent globally during Q2 2017.
* Manufacturers continue to be a key target for cybercriminals.
* 67 percent of malware attacks were delivered by phishing emails.
* The speed of attacks continues to increase exponentially once proof of concept code is released.

“Our Global Threat Intelligence Centers are constantly monitoring cyber activities on a global scale and providing us with great insight as to which industries cybercriminals are targeting, why they’re targeting these areas, and how they may do so moving forward,” said Jon Heimerl, manager, Threat Intelligence Communication Team, NTT Security.

“This latest GTIC 2017 Q2 Threat Intelligence Report documents that hackers continue to target the manufacturing sector, which should be a red flag for CISOs across this market segment.”

According to the GTIC 2017 Q2 Threat Intelligence Report’s latest findings, 34 percent of all documented attacks targeted manufacturers. Moreover, manufacturers appear in the top three targets in five of the six geographic regions globally.

“This is no coincidence,” continued Heimerl. “The motivations for these attacks are often criminal in nature, including extortion via ransomware, industrial espionage, and theft of data such as account numbers. What poses an even greater problem is that when these breaches are successful, yet go undetected, they allow hackers to establish footholds in organisations’ networks where they have free reign to wreak havoc over extended periods.

"This is a problem if we consider that 37 percent of manufacturers recently surveyed, indicated they do not have an incident response plan in place. This is very concerning as manufacturers’ IT security liabilities often impacted not just the manufacturing organisations, but suppliers, as well as related industries and consumers.”

The insights from this research data support and enable NTT Security to deliver more strategic and comprehensive cyber-attack detection and prevention services. This unique approach of combining products, systems and services into a comprehensive end-to-end solution provides the company’s extensive base of clients with proven business resilience.