- 7 Surprising Findings From Check Point’s 2014 Security Report
- Data Loss Events Are Growing
- Malware Is Downloaded Every Two Hours
- Bots Communicate More Often
- Buffer Overflow Is a Leading Attack Vector
- Microsoft Leads the List for Most Security Events by Vendor
- PDFs Are the Most Common Form of Unknown Malware
- A Third of Endpoints Are Not Fully Updated
7 Surprising Findings From Check Point’s 2014 Security Report
by Sean Michael Kerner
Data Loss Events Are Growing
On a year-over-year basis, Check Point found that across the industrial, finance, government and telco sectors, the percentage of organizations with at least one potential data loss event is growing.
Malware Is Downloaded Every Two Hours
Fifty-eight percent of organizations downloaded malware every two hours or less.
Bots Communicate More Often
Infected hosts, which become bots in a botnet, need to communicate with their comand and control center in order to get instructions. In 2013, Check Point found that the frequency of bot communications increased, with 47 percent of communications happening at least once per hour.
Buffer Overflow Is a Leading Attack Vector
There are multiple attack vectors used today, including buffer overflow, which is a form of memory corruption.
Microsoft Leads the List for Most Security Events by Vendor
Once again, Microsoft was the most attacked platform in 2013.
PDFs Are the Most Common Form of Unknown Malware
Malware can use any number of different payload formats, but in 2013, Check Point found that 35 percent of unknown malware used the Adobe PDF format.
A Third of Endpoints Are Not Fully Updated
In addition to malware threats, misconfiguration is a significant IT risk. One-third of hosts analyzed by Check Point were not running updated software versions of Flash, Java and Internet Explorer.