Study: Unrelenting Cyberattacks Target Businesses

(RTTNews) - Cyber attacks against large companies increased 40 percent in 2014, according to Symantec's annual Internet Security Threat Report.

Five out of every six large companies, those with over 2,500 employees, were targeted with spear-phishing attacks in 2014, a 40 percent increase over 2013. Meanwhile, 60 percent of all cyber attacks in 2014 were targeted at the small- and medium-sized businesses, with attacks increasing 26 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Although, the number of attacks surged, the study found that attackers were more efficient, as they deployed 14 percent less email towards 20 percent fewer targets.

Symantec found that nearly one million new threats were released into the wild each day.

Ransomware attacks grew 113 percent in 2014, driven by more than a 4,000 percent increase in crypto-ransomware attacks. Crypto-ransomware holds a victim's files, photos and other digital media hostage. The victim will be offered a key to decrypt their files, but only after paying a ransom that can range from $300 to $500, however, there is no guarantee their files will be freed.

Symantec also found that 17 percent of all Android apps, about one million apps, were actually malware in disguise.