Cybersecurity: Targeted cyber attacks doubled in the year to October 2015, with government and the finance sector bearing the brunt of cybercrime
It's enough to make you want to permanently lose your login details: The number of criminal targeted cyber attacks doubled in the year to October 2015, according to a report released today by Control Risks.
Other worrying trends identified by the risk consultancy's Riskmap Report 2016 report were a 56 per cent rise in the number of politically motivated cyber attacks and an 18 per cent increase in the average impact of cyber attacks in general in the last year.
Government and the finance sector had plenty of reason to worry. More than a third (36 per cent) of cyber attacks were aimed at government while around a quarter (26 per cent) were focused at the finance industry.
As for predictions for next year, hardware compromise has been forecast as the most impactful cyber attack technique to look out for in 2016, while ransomware and data leaks also rank within the top five.
The number of nations getting involved in cyber attacks is also predicted to increase in 2016, with Control Risks forecasting that next year will see at least 45 nation states actively conducting operations, with a greater proportion of countries capable of causing an event with a severe impact.