Hackers Target Corporate IP Data
A new wave of cybercriminals have been targeting corporate trade secrets, marketing plans, source code and other intellectual property(IP). A recent study found that corporate IP data is the fastest growing currency on the black market, and that companies were not doing a good job of protecting email describing corporate culture, employee manuals and patents. Attackers are using targeted attacks and social engineering tactics to gain access to this type of sensitive information.
Marketing plans, trade secret formulas and information relating to mergers and acquisitions are especially popular targets recently. In addition, many organizations are running very tight budgets and they are unwilling to spend the resources on following up on data breaches or better securing systems to avoid a future breach. Close to a quarter of organizations surveyed said that they have had a merger or acquisition or a new product roll-out slowed or stopped by a data breach.