Cyberattacks Against Big Companies Surged by 40% in 2014, Report Finds

The number of cyberattacks against large companies rose by 40% last year, according to a new report, which finds hackers have honed spear-phishing and fraudulent email campaigns to focus attacks on larger targets with more precision.

Five out of six companies employing more than 2,500 people were targets of cyber attacks last year, according to Symantec’s annual Internet Security Threat Report. Even as the number of attacks surged, analysts found that the hackers were waging more efficient campaigns, deploying 14% less email to infiltrate an organization’s network.

The authors estimate that in addition to targeted attacks, non-targeted malware continues to proliferate online at a rate of 1 million new threats a day.