Check Point survey reveals more than half of targeted attacks reported were driven by financial fraud

Check Point Software Technologies. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced the results of a new survey, revealing 65% of organisations that experienced targeted attacks report the hacker's motivation was driven by financial fraud, and resulted in business disruption and the loss of sensitive information, including intellectual property and trade secrets.

The report: 'The Impact of Cybercrime on Businesses', also showed companies reporting an average of 66 new security attack attempts per week, with successful incidents costing businesses anywhere from $100 000 to $300 000. Among the list of top threats, denial of service (DOS) attacks were said to pose the greatest risk to organisations.

Cyber criminals today are increasingly leveraging malware, bots and other forms of sophisticated threats to attack organisations for various reasons - from financial gain and disruption of business operations to data theft or attacks driven by political agendas. Regardless of motivation, new variants of malware are being generated on a daily basis, often targeting multiple sites and organisations to increase the likelihood of an attack's initial success and the potential for threats to spread quietly throughout an organisation.