Majority of IT specialists are convinced that cyber-threats will increasingly target businesses

Defending the corporate infrastructure against targeted attacks has become a vital challenge for IT security practitioners. In fact, 52% of IT specialists are convinced that these targeted attacks will become even more frequent, based on the findings of a survey conducted by B2B International in July 2012 for Kaspersky Lab.

One third of the specialists surveyed (33%) believe that sooner or later their company will face a targeted cyber-attack. And that means it is already high time for organisations to prepare ways of defending their infrastructure – servers, workstations, corporate mobile devices etc. – against targeted attacks looking to steal data or sabotage operations. The need for these measures is critical as the survey found that targeted attacks are regarded as the third most likely threat in the near future.

As well as looking at the likelihood of targeted attacks on businesses, B2B International asked IT managers and specialists about particular types of malware which can be used as cyber weapons. It turned out that only 27% have heard about Stuxnet, and 13% – about Duqu. The most familiar foes were Trojans designed to steal user data – names such as SpyEye and ZeuS turned out to be known by 31% of those surveyed.

B2B International conducted the survey before the Madi targeted attack sample was detected. That attack targeted the infrastructure of engineering companies, governmental organisations, banks and academia in the Middle East and was aimed at victims related to these organisations. Kaspersky Lab’s experts conducted a detailed survey jointly with the Israeli company Seculert and posted the results on Securelist.com.

For more information on ways to protect employee workstations, including advice about targeted attacks, please visit the appropriate section of Kaspersky Lab’s Be Ready for What’s Next website: http://www.kaspersky.com/beready/

The full version of the report on the results of the survey conducted by B2B International in July 2012 is available at: http://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/pdf/kaspersky_global_it-security-risks-survey_report_eng_final.pdf