SYDNEY, 25 February 2015 – Prolific cyberattacks against Sony capped off one of the biggest years on record for cyber security. Approximately 100 terabytes of data were compromised and up to US$100 million in damages were inflicted during this headline-grabbing incident as the Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), annual security roundup report, “The high cost of complacency," analyses this and other notable activity throughout 2014. The year’s happenings reinforced that cybercriminals are relentless with ever-increasing levels of sophistication and tenacity.

“The average data breach costs Australian and New Zealand organisations millions of dollars, as well the long term impact on shareholder value and brand image," said Zak Khan, director of custom cyber defence at Trend Micro Australia and New Zealand. “In Australia and New Zealand Trend Micro has already seen an eightfold increase in enquiries in 2015 after analysts forecasted another big year for data breaches. With so many high profile attacks in 2014, organisations are beginning to recognise that prevention is cheaper than a cure."

“All in all, it’s a combination of identifying what’s most important, deploying the right technologies, and educating users," continued Khan. “It is everybody’s job–not just those of IT professionals–to ensure that the company’s core data stays safe."

Additional findings include confirmation of Trend Micro’s late 2013 prediction that one sizable data breach would occur every month—further solidifying the need for organisations to protect their networks and implement intrusion detection.

“The past year was unprecedented in terms of the size and scope of cyber attacks as evidenced by the Sony situation," said Khan. “Unfortunately, this will most likely be a ‘sneak peek’ of what is to come."

“Attackers are both tenacious and persistent in stealing data and intellectual property," continued Khan. To effectively deal with this reality, organisations in ANZ need the ability to detect unexpected and unseen attacks and indications of attacker behaviour across all nooks and crevices of their networks."

Report highlights include:

• No threat is too small. It did not take a sophisticated piece of malware to cripple a target. Attackers are using a simple wiper to breach company’s defenses with devastating effects.
• PoS RAM scrapers came close to becoming a mainstream threat in 2014, as several high-profile targets lost millions of customer data to attackers month after month. Australia was ranked fourth in the world for the distribution of systems where PoS malware were found in 2014, after the US, Canada and the UK.
• New attacks showed that no application was invulnerable in 2014 as attackers branched out into new territory.
• Online and mobile banking faced bigger security challenges and are proving that two-factor authentication was no longer enough to secure sensitive transactions.
• Ransomware became a bigger and more sophisticated threat across regions and segments. And unlike older variants no longer just issue empty threats but actually encrypt files. Australia and New Zealand became targets in 2014, with the local strain of CryptoLocker targeting Australian consumers and business. Australia was also ranked third in the world for countries where ransomware was detected, a large rise in the global percentage of ransomware from 2013.

For the complete report, please visit here.

A blog post regarding the report can be viewed here.