Businesses are increasingly under attack by cyber-criminals who seek to exploit employees connecting to corporate networks via mobile devices and their rising use of social media, a new report said.
SonicWALL in a bulletin also said growth in Android-based malware and social media scams such as click-jacking on Facebook and malicious links sent over Twitter are creating new and heightened levels of business vulnerability from data intrusion, theft and loss.
Productivity and profitability are also compromised due to network and application downtime. Data for the bulletin was sourced from the SonicWALL Global Response Intelligent Defense (GRID) Network, which gathers, analyzes and correlates billions of dynamic, real-time global cyber-threats.
“Cyber-criminals are focusing their attention on penetrating corporate networks and data through mobile workflow and applications.
Employees innocently surfing dating sites via a mobile device or PC, that are in fact fake sites, or clicking on offers on Facebook such as a free McDonald’s meal that are click-jacking scams, can have a catastrophic impact on data security, business continuity and profitability,” said Kevin Luk, Country Manager of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, SonicWALL.
The mid-year cyber-threat intelligence also said mobile-based threats have risen significantly over the last six months and that the Android market malware is a growing issue.
Security threats resulting from the use of social media continue to rise and the US, Canada, and Taiwan are the most heavily hit countries for worldwide threat-related traffic, the report further said.
New and familiar viruses continue to infect computers and networks worldwide and phishing fraud is more sophisticated and difficult to detect.