Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from the financial market to targeting the retail sector, according to new NTT Group research.
Retail organisations experienced nearly three times as many cyberattacks as those in the finance sector last year, according to the latest NTT Global Threat Intelligence Report. Retail topped the list of cybersecurity attacks on all sectors at nearly 11 per cent, knocking the finance sector out of first place to 14th position.
Based on 3.5 trillion security logs and 6.2 billion attacks, the report gathered data from 8000 clients of NTT Group security companies including Dimension Data, Solutionary, NTT Com Security, NTT R&D, and NTT Innovation Institute (NTTi3). It also included data from the group’s 24 security centres and seven research and development centres.
“The retail and financial sectors process large volumes of personal information and credit-card data,” says Dimension Data group executive (security) Matthew Gyde. “Gaining access to these organisations enables cybercriminals to monetise sensitive data such as credit-card details in the black market.
“Retail companies are becoming increasingly popular targets as most process large volumes of personal information, including credit-card data, in highly distributed environments with many endpoints and point-of-service devices. Such diverse environments can be difficult to protect.”
While 65 per cent of attacks originated from IP addresses within the US, these addresses could be located anywhere in the world, says the report.
“Cybercriminals are adopting low-cost, highly available and geographically strategic infrastructure to perpetrate malicious activities.
“Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging malware to breach the perimeter defences of organisations,” says the report, with an 18 per cent increase last year in malware across all industries, excluding the education sector.
It warns that the frequency and complexity of malware is becoming more stealthy and sophisticated.
Dimension Data, a member of the NTT Group, focuses on digital infrastructure, hybrid cloud, workspaces for tomorrow, cybersecurity, and networks, and with offices in 58 countries has a turnover of US$7.5 billion.
