Here’s a wakeup call: While your employees were out taking long winter naps for the holidays, hackers were busy working overtime trying to gain backdoor access into your network by phishing for employee credentials and attempting to bypass your firewall.

Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality of running a business in 2016, as cyberdefense has become an around-the-clock responsibility that can no longer be overlooked.

Want proof? Just look at a recent benchmark report from Kaspersky Labs, which indicates that one in three business computers were exposed at least once to a Web-based attack in 2015. What's more, standard office applications were exploited three times as often as consumer applications last year. And 58 percent of corporate PCs were hit with at least one attempted malware infection.

Kaspersky Labs also indicates that cyberthieves are getting more creative—and comprehensive—with their hacking attempts. According to Kaspersky, hackers are now investigating key contacts and suppliers within target organizations, and are taking the time to study employees’ personal browsing habits and individual interests in order to gain the necessary insight to form customized attacks.

What’s motivating hackers today? In addition to seeking sensitive corporate data like trade secrets, and customer billing information, which can be resold on the black market, hackers are also looking to strike it rich. Kaspersky claims that the average return from an attack on a financial institution produced between $2.5 and $10 million dollars in 2015. 

That’s not all, though. The report confirms  that cyberthreats are now more diverse than ever as hackers are looking to exploit any and all vulnerabilities they can find. Kaspersky Labs, for instance, blocked more than 11,500 hacking attempts on point of sale (Pos) devices in 2015. And registered CryptoLocker attacks doubled last year, as the virus was detected on over 50,000 corporate machines. CryptoLocker, in case you’re unaware, is a particularly vicious form of ransomware that embeds itself onto end user machines and threatens to delete select files if payments are not made in time.

So with these statistics in mind, it’s time to act before your network is compromised. Contact Norwalk, Connecticut’s premier computer consulting firm, Apex Technology Services, and ask how you can keep your business safe.