Beware: 14 adults become a victim of cyber crime every second

 Worse, unknown attacks now surpassed known attacks.

Speaking at the NetEvents Thailand, Doug Schultz, VP of Asia Pacific/Japan, FireEye, said that malware are now very different from what they were in the last decade. A computer, he said, can be infected by just simply clicking a link attached to email, web and files.

“New breed of malware now known as advanced persistent threat (APT) has become more unique and targeted. They are becoming sophisticated, undetected, and continue to find ways to keep undetected. Some have self-muted and spread laterally in the organization,” he said.

According to Schultz, from a specific customer case, they observed for the first time in 2011, unknown attacks had surpassed the 50% level of attacks in comparison to known/signature based attacks."

“At NY Times latest reported breach in Jan 2013, 45 pieces of malware were found but existing Anti Virus only detected 1. That’s how vulnerable our systems are,” he said.

Schultz said  2 out of 3 firms report that they have been the victim of cyber security and every second, 14 adults become a victim of cybercrime.

Schultz went on saying that 40% of all IT executives expect a major cyber security incident with around 9,000+ malicious websites being identified everyday and 95 new vulnerabilities discovered every week.

Since 2009 unique malware have grown 115% CAGR, reported Schultz.

Schultz believes that Singapore is no exception from the APT attacks that are happening globally. However, FireEye, he said has observed that Singapore government and enterprises have exhibited strong emphasis in cyber security where a holistic approach is embraced in terms of awareness, process, technologies and skillsets development.

During a press briefing Schultz mentioned that more than 9 in 10 firms are at risk of new breed of cyber attacks and among industries, press is becoming a big target for cyber attacks.

“That’s what happened to New York Times, and Washington Post. They attempt to hack journalists’ sources of information,” he said.

Banks are also big targets, he added.