The number of malicious attacks being carried out online every day has increased considerably in the last year.
In all, software from the online security developer Symantec successfully blocked more than 5.5 billion malicious attacks in 2011 alone, an increase of 81 percent over 2010's total,
according the company. The company also found that the number of targeted attacks increased to a total of 82 per day. More than 50 percent of hacking attacks were targeted at organizations with fewer than 2,500 employees, and almost 18 percent tried to affect those with 250 or fewer.
However, even as these attacks increased considerably, the amount of spam and new vulnerabilities to computer systems fell, the report said.
"We've also seen a large increase in attacks on mobile devices, making these devices a viable platform for attackers to leverage in targeting sensitive data," said Stephen Trilling, chief technology officer for Symantec. "Organizations of all sizes need to be vigilant about protecting their information."
Ondrej Krehel, chief information security officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the concerns consumers and organizations alike face as a result of hacking attacks.
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