Hacking attempts to hit 1 billion says NCC

INTERNET security specialist NCC Group says this current quarter will be a record for hacking attempts with more than one billion taking place worldwide before the end of 2012.

 The Manchester company’s ‘Origin of Hacks’ report from the global information assurance firm identifies 981 million hacks attempted globally in Q3 2012.

This is 23 million more hacks than were attempted in the second quarter of this year and follows four consecutive quarters of increases. There is no sign of this growth trend abating and numbers are expected to exceed one billion in Q4.
 
The US remains the number one country for hack origins, with one in five hacking bids coming from there. The highest growth in hack attempts come from Russia and China, with an increase of nearly 70 million hacks originating in these countries in Q3 compared to Q2 2012.
 
Despite the overall increase, the number of hacks originating in the UK fell by five million in Q3. As a result, the UK fell out of the global top 10 of countries from which hacks originated.
 
NCC’s chief executive Rob Cotton, said: “Passing the one billion mark is a milestone no-one should be proud of. We’ve had copious initiatives and plans announced in the last quarter from bodies and governments aimed at addressing this issue, but the urgency just doesn’t seem to correlate with the growing threat.
 
“In the last quarter, we’ve had news from (Foriegn Secretary) William Hague about: a plan to recruit 100 members of ‘generation Xbox’ to help fight cyber crime; a scheme from the Foreign Office to offer advice to business leaders on tackling cyber threats; and, news that we have begun tentative talks with China and Russia about setting up a hotline to help prevent cyber-emergencies from spiraling out of control.
 
“This shows a real awareness of the ever-growing problem but these initiatives alone are not going to solve the problem. Public and private sector must work together, strategically and tactically, if we are going to be able to realistically defend against a billion hacks a quarter.”