Web security service MessageLabs said it has
intercepted more than 500 individual e-mail attacks targeted toward
individuals in senior management positions within organisations
around the world.
The company’s latest
hacking research found attacks were so precisely addressed that
the name and job title of the victim was included within the
subject line of the e-mail.
Chief investment officers accounted for 30% of the attacks, 11%
were CEOs, CIOs accounted for almost 7% and 6% were CFOs, according
to the data from MessageLabs.
The results show a growing trend towards hackers targeting
attacks at businesses and cyber-warfare. Herbert Strauss, a
research vice president at Gartner recently warned, “New and
evolving state-sponsored cyber-warfare initiatives pose threats and
risks to public and private sector enterprises. Government and
private sector executives and IT leaders must understand the nature
of cyber-warfare to properly assess the risks."
Last month MessageLabs intercepted 595 e-mails in 249 separate
targeted attacks aimed at 192 different organisations. Of these,
180 were one-on-one targeted attacks.
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