Few companies have any realistic idea of how much new malware appears every day
Most companies greatly underestimate the number of new malicious programs appearing daily, and only 6% recognize the true scale of the threat, according to the 2013 Global Corporate IT Security Risks survey conducted by analytical authority B2B International and Kaspersky Lab in spring this year. According to Kaspersky Lab, nearly 200,000 new malware samples appear around the world each day. Asked to estimate this figure, 90% of global participants in the survey named a lower figure; 4% guessed too high and only 6% gave an accurate estimate.
The highest levels of malware awareness were found among respondents in the Middle East, where 24% of companies gave accurate estimates. At 4%, the lowest levels of malware literacy were found in Russia. In other regions, including North and South America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific, the percentage of companies with accurate estimates ranged from 5% – 7%.
Remarkably, the results of this same survey revealed that an average 66% of companies had experienced at least one attack involving malware in the previous 12 months. The companies most frequently targeted in those attacks were located in South America (72%), Russia (71%), North America (70%), Asia-Pacific (68%) and Western Europe (63%) — in other words, the regions demonstrating relatively low levels of education about the number of new malicious programs emerging daily.
While a company’s ability to accurately assess daily malware volumes is not necessarily an indicator of preparedness to counter cyber-attacks, it’s reasonable to suggest that better informed organizations are more capable of assessing risk and making the most suitable choices when it comes to protecting IT infrastructure – such as implementing Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business. The product includes targeted, developed features that work not only to protect a company’s IT infrastructure, but to manage it as well.
