Large firms hit by 69 percent of targeted cyber-attacks in India: Symantec

Despite stepped up information security measures, businesses in India continue to be an attractive target for cybercriminals with as many as 69 percent targeted attacks being focused on large enterprises, a Symantec report said on Thursday.

"Globally targeted attacks were up 91 percent and lasted an average of three times longer compared to 2012. In India, cybercriminals are unrelenting in their focus on large enterprises with a staggering 69 percent targeted attacks carried out against them.

"Despite stepping up their information security measures, businesses in India continue to be an attractive target for cybercriminals," said the Internet Security Threat Report, based on data from Symantec's Global Intelligence Network.

"One mega breach can be worth 50 smaller attacks," said Tarun Kaura, director, technology sales at Symantec India. "While the level of sophistication continues to grow among attackers, what was surprising last year was their willingness to be a lot more patient - waiting to strike until the reward is bigger and better."

The report by security software maker Symantec said globally there was a 62 percent increase in the number of data breaches from the previous year, resulting in more than 552 million identities being exposed. Each of the eight top data breaches in 2013 resulted in the loss of tens of millions of data records.

By comparison, 2012 only had a single data breach reach that threshold.

The report also said that India has emerged as a key threat frontier, ranking as the third highest source of overall malicious activity. In India, nearly four in 10 attacks were carried out on non-traditional services industries like hospitality, business and personal services. This was followed by attacks on manufacturing, finance and insurance sectors.