According to findings from Symantec's latest annual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), the UK ranked as the nation third most targeted with ransomware, the most targeted nation for spear phishing attacks and the second most hit-upon country with social media scams.

When it comes to technical support scams, the UK is the second most targeted nation globally, suffering 7m attacks in 2015. This type of scam drives users to attacker-run call centers in order to dupe them into buying useless services.

According to Symantec's report, 430 million new malware variants were discovered in 2015. Virus creators routinely vary their wares in a bid to outfox security defenses. And the number of zero-day vulnerabilities discovered last year more than doubled to a record-breaking 54, a 125 per cent increase from the previous year.

Symantec also indicated that advanced professional attack groups are the first to leverage zero-day vulnerabilities. If they don't use them, they sell them to lower-level criminals on the open market.

The report makes grim reading for anyone concerned about privacy or corporate security.

Source: The Register