Archive
December 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics
December (and hence this 2012) is gone, so it is time to analyze the statistics for the corresponding Cyber Attacks Timelines.
According to the Daily Trend of December, the Christmas break has not stopped the hackers. The trend is quite constant (with a decrease around the end of the month) and with a peak around the 21st of December (the alleged End of the World according to the Mayan Calendar).
The Motivations Behind Attacks chart shows an inversion of tendency in comparison with November. Cyber Crime and Hacktivism had nearly the same impact with respectively the 47% and 46% of occurrences. It is also interesting the presence of Cyber Warfare and Cyber Espionage Campaigns (mainly concentrated in the East).
Also in December, the Distribution Of Attack Techniques Chart confirms the predominance of SQL Injection, even if with a slightly lower impact than the previous month when it was at the 52%: nearly one attack on three has been carried on with this technique. Instead, in almost one attack on four, there was not enough information. Despite the attacks by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, the weight of DDoS is progressively decreasing (this category ranks at number four with the 17% of occurrences), while, on the other side, the number of discovered targeted attacks is growing. Maybe they are increasingly attracting the attention of Security Researchers.
Again an inversion in comparison with November: the Distribution Of Targets chart shows that in the December cyber-crooks diverted their attention for targets belonging to the Government sector, even if industries and organizations are very close (the peak of the latter is due to the campaign of the Anonymous against the Westboro Baptist Church. It is also interesting to notice the peak of attacks against Financial institutions mainly due to the waves of DDoS attacks against the U.S. Bank.
As usual, no need to remind that the sample must be taken very carefully since it refers only to discovered attacks included in the December Cyber Attacks Timeline (the so-called tip of the iceberg), and hence it does not pretend to be exhaustive but only aims to provide an high level overview of the “cyber landscape”.
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated), at the Cyber Attack Statistics, and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).
Related articles
- November 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics (hackmageddon.com)
- October 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics (hackmageddon.com)
16-31 December 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline
The year is gone, and here it is the last Cyber Attack Timeline for 2012 (first part here).
The most important cyber-events of this second part of December can be considered: the third phase of the operation Ababil carried on by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters against U.S. Banks, the attacks of the Anonymous collective against the Westboro Baptist Church, and, last but not least the Cyberwar echoes coming from Iran.
The wave of DDoS attacks carried on by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters has taken down Six U.S. Banks under the fists of DDoS attacks apparently unstoppable. Instead the Anonymous seem to have changed tactic in their personal fight against the Westboro Baptist Church, they did not limit to DDoS the church’s website, but also performed a couple of Twitter account takeover against some key persons (with the collaboration of UGNazi members).
Instead, on the Cyberwar front, Iran confirms to be a danger zone, with some reports of a new Wiper and a simil-Stuxnet malware (even if this second news has been downplayed in a second moment.
Other noticeable news include an alleged breach to Yahoo!, a massive breach against a Chinese HP domain and a strange, controversial breach against Verizon FiOS (with data apparently leaked six months ago).
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 and the related statistics (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts). To do so, you can use this form.
1-15 December 2012 Attack Statistics
Let us gave a look to the landscape of Cyber Attacks, during the first half of December 2012. Apparently cybercrooks are taking a break for Christmas, since, according to my selection Criteria, the number of attacks has shown a small decrease in comparison with the previous months.
The Daily Trend shows an inconstant trend with two peaks around respectively the 3rd December and the 11th and 12th (the latter due to the peak of Cyber Attacks against the US Banks).
The Motivations Behind Attacks chart shows, for the first time since August, the overtake of Hacktivism against Cyber Crime. Let us see if this trend will be confirmed until the end of the year.
The Distribution Of Attacks chart confirms that SQL Injection confirms to be the weapon preferred by Cyber Attackers with nearly one third of the occurrences (the value reaches nearly the 40% if one sums also the cases in which the attack seems to have been carried on with this technique but no enough evidences have been collected). In my opinion it is also important to notice the presence in the chart of several attacks perpetrated exploiting application vulnerabilities, but also the growing presence of targeted attacks (as usual you can find the details on the corresponding Cyber Attack Timeline.
Instead, at least for the first half of the month, the Distribution of Targets chart seems quite fragmented. Governmental targets lead the chart, but Financial, Industrial and Organizational targets are very close. Maybe the fragmentation depends from the partial sample. The second half of December will tell us if cybercrooks will concentrate their attacks against a specific sector.
As usual, no need to remind that the sample must be taken very carefully since it refers only to discovered attacks (the so-called tip of the iceberg), and hence it does not pretend to be exhaustive but only aims to provide an high level overview of the “cyber landscape”.
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 and the related statistics (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts). To do so, you can use this form.
1-15 December 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline
Christmas is coming quickly, we have just passed the first half of December, and hence it’s time for the first update of the Cyber Attacks Timeline for December.
The Team GhostShell has decided to close the year with a clamorous Cyber Attack, and hence,as part of the project ProjectWhiteFox, has leaked 1.6 million of accounts from several organizations all over the world. This is the most important event for this first part of the month that apparently has shown a decreasing trend. Hacktivists are still focusing their attention (and their keyboards) to Israel, and Cyber Criminals are maybe preparing for the Christmas attacks.
However, the main events of the first half of December, are related to hacktivism, besides the above mentioned cyber attack, it worth to mention the new wave of massive DDoS attacks against US Banks (up to 60 Gbps of peak according to Arbor Networks), but also the leak of a ITU document on the future of Deep Packet Inspection and the attacks in Egypt, Mexico and India.
Last but not least: this two weeks also offered a giant attack to the famous Social Platform Tumblr and also the warning of the Switzerland’s national security agency (NDB) that a huge amount of secrets may have been leaked by a disgruntled IT Administrator.
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 and the related statistics (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts). To do so, you can use this form.
About The Author
Support My Work!
Share:
News
08/13/2011 - My Post on Android Malware Mentioned on Engadget.
04/14/2011 - The Article Smart Grid: L'ultima Frontiera del Cybercrime published on ICT Security Magazine May 2011.
03/14/2011 - Security Summit 2011: Paolo Passeri guest at Round Table "Mobile Security: Rischi, Tecnologie, Mercato"
02/14/2011 - The Article Gears of Cyberwar published on ICT Security Magazine January 2011.
Visitors from…
