Sponsored by Check Point Software Technologies this independently developed study by the Ponemon Institute shows that  Cyber criminals today are increasingly leveraging malware, bots and other forms of sophisticated threats to attack organizations for various reasons, including financial gain, business disruption or political agendas. In many cases, cybercriminals often target multiple sites and organizations to increase the likelihood of an attack’s initial success and viral spread.

With new variants of malware being generated on a daily basis, many companies struggle to fight these threats separately and the majority of attacks are often left undetected or unreported.

In addition, cybercriminals are no longer isolated amateurs. They belong to well-structured organizations with money, motivation and goals, often employing highly skilled hackers that execute targeted attacks. Such organizations can deploy considerable threat intelligence, time and resources in order to execute attacks that can cost cybercrime victims significant amounts of money.

Unfortunately, this trend is only growing more complex as businesses experience a surge in Web 2.0 use, mobile computing and the cloud, creating more channels of communication and vulnerable entry points into the network.

The purpose of the study is to better understand the likelihood, frequency and magnitude targeted threats have on organizations across all company sizes and industries, and to understand how IT practitioners are addressing the risk for future remediation and precautions. In this study we surveyed 2,618 highly experienced business leaders and IT security practitioners located in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong and Brazil.