2010-10-28 17:36 
- For the first time,
up to 25 percent of all targeted attacks in October destined for
the Retail sector -
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 28
/PRNewswire-Asia/ -- October 28, 2010- Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:
SYMC) today announced the publication of its October 2010
MessageLabs Intelligence Report. Analysis reveals that targeted
attacks have increased significantly since they were first
discovered five years ago from one to two attacks per week in 2005
to 77 attacks per day in October 2010. For the first time, targeted
attacks hit the retail sector hardest this month where they
increased from a steady monthly average of .5 percent of all
attacks over the past two years to 25 percent in October
characterized by a retail organization that was the intended
recipient of three waves of highly targeted spear phishing attacks.
In October, 1 in 1.26 million emails comprised a targeted
attack.
Typically, between 200 and 300
organizations are targeted each month with the industry sector
varying. Over time, the same individuals are targeted but using
different exploit methods. For example, in October, an average of
5.4 users was targeted within each organization.
"While targeted emails by nature are
sent in low volumes, they are one of the most damaging types of
malicious attacks," said MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst
Paul Wood. "We have seen a constant influx of targeted attacks over
the past six months with the type of organization targeted changing
on a monthly basis and the number of targeted users increasing each
month. Although the number of unique attack exploits being deployed
has diminished slightly, the number of attacks used by each exploit
has increased."
In October, the number of targeted
attacks aimed at businesses in the Retail sector rose considerably
above the monthly average of 1 in 1.26 million, increasing the
likelihood of an attack by a factor of almost 6.3 times. Moreover,
the number of attacks against the retail sector jumped to 516 in
the last month, compared to just seven attacks per month for much
of 2010 marking the first time the retail sector had been the focus
of a targeted attack campaign in recent years.
"Of the 516 attacks, only six
organizations were the intended targets but two of them were mainly
targeted one of which was the target of 63 percent of the 516
attacks," Wood said. "The spear phishing attacks, launched in three
waves each one week apart, used social engineering techniques to
distribute legitimate-looking emails from HR and IT staff of the
targeted organization but in actuality contained malicious
attachments."
Each wave was comprised of one or
two different email messages using different themes. The first wave
of emails targeted 50 recipients and spoofed an email address from
the firm's Senior HR Executive with subjects referring to
confidential salary information. The attachment contained a
malicious PDF. The second wave also spoofed an HR Executive and
targeted 20 recipients with a subject line pertaining to new
employment opportunities.
The malicious attachment was an XLS
file. The third wave took a slightly different approach and spoofed
one of the organization's Senior IT Security Executives. It
targeted 70 employees and requested action with a critical security
update. The malicious attachment was a password-protected zip
file.
"Examination of the attacks' timing
and techniques suggests a methodical approach on behalf of the
attackers," Wood said. "In the case that the recipient clicked on
any of the three malicious attachments, a backdoor Trojan would
have been installed onto the computer with the potential for the
attacker to gain access to any sensitive personal information or
valuable corporate data on the machine."
Other report highlights:
Spam: In
October 2010, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new
and previously unknown bad sources was 87.5 percent (1 in 1.4
emails), a decrease of 4.2 percentage points since September.
Viruses: The
global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and
previously unknown bad sources was one in 221.9 emails (0.45
percent) in October, an decrease of .01 percentage points since
September. In October, 23.1 percent of email-borne malware
contained links to malicious websites, an increase of 15.5
percentage points since September.
Endpoint
Threats: Threats against endpoint devices such as
laptops, PCs and servers may penetrate an organization in a number
of ways, including drive-by attacks from compromised websites,
Trojan horses and worms that spread by copying themselves to
removable drives. Analysis of the most frequently blocked malware
for the last month revealed that the Sality.AE virus was the most
prevalent. Sality.AE spreads by infecting executable files and
attempts to download potentially malicious files from the
Internet.
Phishing: In
October, phishing activity was 1 in 488.0 emails (0.20 percent), a
decrease of 0.06 percentage points since September.
Web
security: Analysis of web security activity shows
that 51.3 percent of malicious domains blocked were new in October,
an increase of 17.7 percentage points since September.
Additionally, 24.7 percent of all web-based malware blocked was new
in October, an increase of 2.9 percentage points since last month.
MessageLabs Intelligence also identified an average of 2,280 new
websites per day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted
programs such as spyware and adware, a decrease of 23.9 percent
since September.
Geographical
Trends:
Vertical
Trends:
The October 2010 MessageLabs
Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends
and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and
vertical trends. The full report is available athttp://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx.
Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence
is a respected source of data and analysis for messaging security
issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs Intelligence provides a
range of information on global security threats based on live data
feeds from our control towers around the world scanning billions of
messages each week.
About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in
providing security, storage and systems management solutions to
help consumers and organizations secure and manage their
information-driven world. Our software and services protect
against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently,
enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More
information is available at http://www.symantec.com/.
Media contacts:
Adrian Lee
XPR
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Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Symantec