Welcome to the November edition of the Symantec Intelligence report. Symantec Intelligence aims to provide the latest analysis of cyber security threats, trends, and insights concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks.
The proportion of email traffic containing malware was up in November, where one in 140 emails contained malware. Public Administration was the most targeted sector in November, with one in every 85.6 emails containing malware. Organizations with 251-500 employees were most likely to be targeted by malicious email in the month of November, where one in 93.7 emails was malicious.
Interestingly, there were 19.4 million new pieces of malware created in November. This rate has steadily declined in the second half of 2015, from a high of 57.6 million seen in June. While such a decline could point to a reduction in malicious activity, it could also mean that attackers are having a higher success rate in compromising computers, thus not needing to produce as much malware to achieve their goals.
The overall email spam rate in November was also up at 54.1 percent, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from October. At 57 percent, the Mining sector again had the highest spam rate during November.
In terms of targeted attacks in general, the Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate sector was the most targeted sector during November, comprising 41 percent of all targeted attacks. Large enterprises were the target of 49.9 percent of these spear-phishing attacks.
We hope you enjoy the November Symantec Intelligence Report. You can download your copy here.